) LIBRARY OF CONGRESs/l 



Chap. 
Shelf 



UNSTED STATES OF AMERICA. 



THE 



aARBENEE'S 

MONTHLY VOLUME. 

v,IO 

THE PEACH; 

ITS CULTURE, USES, AND HISTORY. 



BY GEORGE W.- JOHNSON, 

Author of '* The Dictionary of Modern Gardening," " (Jarden»*s 
Almanack/* &c. ; and 

ERRINGTON, 

Gardener to Sir Philip Eg^fton, Bart. 



OCTOBER. 




LONDON^ 

SIMPKIN, MARSHALL, & CO., PATERNOSTER ROW. 

WINCHESTER: 
H. WOOLDEIDGE, HIGH-STREET. 

1847. 



TTINCHESTER : 
H. WOOLDRIDGE, PRINTER, HIGH-STREET. 



CONTENTS. 



History. Greek name, 1. Columella first Roman to notice 
the peach, 2. Pliny's fuller notice, 3. Its introduction 
in Britain, 4. Varieties in the time of Gerard and Parkin- 
son, 5. Ray's and Switzer's Catalogues, 6. First sepa- 
rate treatise on its culture, 8. Culture in France at Mon- 
treuil, &c., 9. Quintinie's and Pepin's systems of train- 
ing, 10. Other French modes, 11. Origin of wall-train- 
ing, 13. Produce at Montreuil, 14. 

Botanical Characters. Name, &c., 16. Native country, 
17. Relationship of the almond, peach, and nectarine, 18. 

Chemical Composition. Berard's analyses, 20. 

Varieties, 20. Selections, 42. 

Characteristics of Excellence, 42. 

Modes op Propagation. By seed, 43. Hybridizing, 44. 
Layers, 44. Grafting, 45. Budding, 50. Choice of 
stocks, 52. Adaptation to soil, 53. Peach stocks raising, 
55, Stocks not all-important, 56. Transplanting stocks, 
57. 

Soil and Manures. Drainage, 58. Loamy soil, 59. Pre- 
paring out- door borders, 60. Concrete bottoms, 61. Pre- 
paring soil, 62, In-door borders, 63. Flued-wall borders, 
63. 

Standard Culture, Hardy Morton peach, 64. Rosanna, 65. 



iv 



CONTENTS. 



Wall-culture. The border, 66. Drainage, 69. Walls, 70. 
Flued-walls, 71. Pruning on flued- walls, 73. Choice of 
plants, 77. Planting, 79. Pruning, 80. General rules 
for, 81. French method of training, 83. Training at Mon- 
treuil, 85. Training a la Dumoutier, 87. Training a la 
SieuUe, 91. Fan-training, 94. Mr. J. Seymour's plan, 99. 
Mr. W. Seymour's, 103. Mr. Mitchell's, 105. Training 
on low walls, 106. Summer-pruning, 107. Disbudding, 
108. Stopping, 111. Autumn-pruning, ill. Sheltering 
the blossom, 112. Theoiy of shelters, 113. Periodical 
wind, 116. Fern and netting as screens, 117. Glass, 121. 
Thmnmg, 122. Gathering, 123. Falling fruit, 124. 

Peach-house. Its construction, 125. Angle of roof, 127. 
Henderson's peach-house, 129. Heating, 130. Tempe* 
rature, 131. Night temperature, 132. High heats, 133. 
Borders, pruning, training, and disbudding, 134. Stopping, 
135. Watering and syringing, 136. Impregnation, 137. 
Watering borders, 138. Preventing bruising, 139. Re- 
moval of glass, 139. Winter treatment, 142. Henderson's 
system, 143. Mearn's, 145. Peach trees and vines, 148. 

PoT-cuLTURE, 151. Hutchinson's modc, 152. His high tem- 
peratures, 155. Soil, 156. Atmospheric moisture, 158. 

Diseases. Gumming, 159. Shrivelling of shoots, 168. Blis- 
tering of leaves, 170. Mildew, 172. Blotches, 176. Split- 
ting of fruit, 176. Splitting of the stones, 177. Wounds, 
177. 

Insects. Aphis Persicse, 178. Brown Scale, 179. Red Spi- 
der, 182. Red-legged Weevil, 184. Oblong Weevil, 184. 
Otiorhyncus sulcatus, 185. Curculio picipes, 186. In- 
sect enemies in N. Am-ef^ca, 188. Wasps, 189. 



THE PEACH. 



HISTORY. 

The peach is mentioned by the earhest writers upon 
Natural History, and always under a name that points 
to Persia as the place of its origin. Thus, among 
the Greeks, Dioscorides (1. i. c. 164,) calls it Fersi- 
kon melon (the Persian apple) ; but the Persian or 
Fersikon of Theophrastus (2 Hist. 3,) is, probably, 
the Persea of modern botanists, and, if so, widely 
differing from the peach. 

This fruit was not known to the earliest Roman 
cultivators, for it is not mentioned by Cato in his 
work Be Re Rustica,'' though he enters minutely 
into the culture of other fruit trees ; but, in addition to 
this negative evidence, we have the direct testimony 
of Pliny, who wrote his Natural History in the first 
century of the Christian era, and he there states 
that the peach had been introduced about thirty 
years. The first Roman writer who dwells upon the 
culture of the peach, is Columella, who wrote, prob- 

B 



2 



ably about the latter half of the first century of the 
Christian era, and whose writings are commended by 
Pliny.* The 1 0th book of Columella's De re Rus- 
tica" is in verse, and On the Culture of Gardens/' 
in this, he speaks of the peach (v. 405,) as having 
been sent by the Persians to other nations, for the 
purpose of poisoning the inhabitants, but he speaks of 
it as a mere report, observing that in his time the 
fruit had not only lost the power of being hurtful, but 
yielded ambrosial juices," though still retaining 
the name of the Persian Apple." Pliny controverts 
the statement relative to the poisonous quality of the 
Persian peaches. Columella says, that the earliest 
were produced in Gaul, but that those introduced 
from Asia were slow in ripening. Palladius, who 
wrote, probably, about thirty years later than Colu- 
mella, gives more full directions for the cultivation of 

* This settles with tolerable certainty the time when Coln- 
mella wrote, which has been hitherto considered a matter of 
more uncertainty. Pliny died a.d. 113, aged 52 years, and 
it is fair to presume, that he composed his great work when 
about 40 years old, which would be in a.d. 101. The peach, he 
says, had then been introduced about thirty years, which marks 
its introduction to Rome in a.d. 70. Now, as Columella speaks 
of its Roman cultivation, he must have wrote after this year ; and 
as his writings are mentioned by Pliny, he must have written 
before the composition of the latter's Natural History. Colu- 
mella, therefore, lived between the years 70 and 100 of the 
Christian era. 



3 



this fruit, and says there were then three kinds, viz. 
Duracina, probably a hard-fleshed cUng-stone variety ; 
PrcEcoqua Persica, an early-ripe variety; and Armeniay 
which is our apricot, but classed by the ancients 
among the peaches. Besides these and the two men- 
tioned by Columella (the Gallic and the Asiatic), 
Pliny mentions two others — Supernatiay produced in 
the Sabine district of Italy, and Popularia, 

Pliny observes upon the history rather than upon 
the cultivation of peaches, remarking that by their 
Latin name, Persica, proof is given that they were 
first brought from Persia to Rome ; adding that they 
are not a native of either Greece or Natolia. It was 
long, he says, before the peach was introduced at 
Rome, and it was not until after many trials that the 
Roman cultivators succeeded in establishing it in their 
gardens. In the Isle of Rhodes, which was its abid- 
ing place next to Egypt, the peach, in Pliny's time, 
was always unfruitful. (Nat. Hist, 1. xv. c. 12 & 13.) 

He goes on to observe that the Buracina was the 
best of all peaches, on account of the firmness of its 
flesh. The French and Asiatic peaches were so 
named from the regions whence they were imported. 
The peach, he says, was sold at the time of its first 
introduction for a Roman denier a piece, being equal 
to about eightpence of our money. 

To our mind, the very name of Popularia is evi- 
dence that the peach soon became one of the com- 
B 2 



4 



mon fruits of the Romans, and it is quite certain that 
it continues so, being cultivated as a standard through- 
out the length and breadth of the land. 

The tenderness of the tree forbids the supposition 
that the Romans attempted its culture in Britain, nor 
is there any record justifying us to suppose that it 
was grown here before the reign of Henry the 8th 
(1509 — 1546). That monarch sent his gardener, who 
was a French priest, named Woolf, to travel on the 
continent, especially to gain improvement in the art 
of horticulture. He returned with the apricot and 
other fruits to the king's garden at Nonsuch, near 
Croydon, (Gough's Topography i. 133,) and among 
those may have been the peach ; and thus much is 
certain, that Tusser, a contemporary,* mentions of 
fruits in our English gardens, three kinds of peach — 
the white, the red, and the yellow-fleshed. It was 
not ripened well, however, probably, for Heresbach, 
a contemporary of Tusser, says, its hardier relative, 
the apricot, was much preferred, being used as a 
great dainty among noblemen." Dodoens, another 
contemporary, says that the white and the yellow- 
fleshed were identical. 

Gerarde, who wrote a very few years subsequently, 
viz. in 1597, says that there were three or four kinds 
of peach — the white fleshed — the red fleshed — the 

* His One Hundi-ed Points of Good Husbandry" was pub- 
lished in 1557. 



5 



D'avant — and the yellow. He adds, ''I have them 
all in my garden, with many other sorts." (Herball, 
1259.) The D'avant we may conclude was of French 
extraction. Johnson, in his edition of Gerarde's 
Herball, in 1 633, says There are divers sorts besides 
the four set forth by our author, and which may be 
had of my friend Mr. Miller, in Old-street, viz., 
two sorts of Nutmeg peaches ; the Queen's peach ; 
the Newington peach ; the Grand Carnation ; the 
Carnation ; the Black ; the Melocotone ; the White ; 
the Roman ; the Alberza ; the Island ; and Peach de 
Troy. These are all good. He hath also of that 
kind of peach which some call Nucipersicay or Nec- 
torins, these following kinds : the Eoman Eed (the 
best of fruits) ; the Bastard Red ; the Little Dainty 
Green ; the Yellow ; the White ; and the Russet, 
which is not so good as the rest.'' He says that the 
D'avant peach was the Persica Proecocia, Great at- 
tention was now paid to this fruit, for Parkinson, 
whose Paradisus was published in 1629, enumerates 
twenty-one varieties, and says there were others with- 
out names ; and six varieties of nectarines, which, 
he adds, ^^have been with us not many years." The 
names of the peaches enumerated by Parkinson are 
as follows : — 

1. The Great White. 2. The Small White. 3. 
Carnation. 4. Grand Carnation. 5. Red. 6. Rus- 
set. 7. Island. 8. Newington. 9. Yellow. 10. 



6 



St. James. 11. Melocotone. 12. Peacli du Troas. 

13. Queen's. 14. Roman. 15. Durasme or Span- 
ish. 16. Black. 17. Alberza. 18. Almond Peach. 
19. Man Peach. 20. Cherry Peach. 21. Nutmeg 
Peach. 

Mr. Ray, sixty years after Parkinson, gives a Hst 
of eighteen different sorts of peaches then in most 
esteem, the names of which are as follow : — 

1. The White Nutmeg. 2. The Red Nutmeg. 
3. The Troy Peach, so called from Troyes in Cham- 
pagne. 4. The Isabella. 5. The Savoy. 6. The 
Bourdeux. 7. The Early Newington. 8, The Old 
Newington. 9. Violet Muscate. 10. Persicum. 
11. Modanese. 12. Morello. 13. Rumbulliam. 

14. Bellice. 15. Scarlet. 16. Royal. 17. Ricket. 
18. Bloody Monsieur. {Hist. Plantarumii. 1516.) 

The number of the varieties continued to increase 
as years passed on ; for, in the " Complete Gardener" 
of London and Wise, published in 1699, 33 are enu- 
merated; in 1707, Mortimer names 47; Switzer, in 
his Practical Fruit Gardener," in 1724, only enu- 
merates the following, according to the order in which 
they ripen their fruit, but they are evidently a select 
list :— 

RIPE IN AUGUST. 

The White Nutmeg. 

— Red Nutmeg, or Forward Troy Peach. 

— Passe Violet, or Double Troy Peach. 



7 



The Anne, so called in compliment to Mrs. Ann 
Dunch, of Pusey, in Berkshire, where it was 
raised. 

— Royal George, " some time in England," first 
raised by Mr. Oram, in Brompton House. 

— Yellow Alberg. 

— Minion, or Mignon : said to be so called by a 
King of France, with whom it was a favourite. 

— B our din, 

— White Magdalen. 

— Magdalen Musque. 

— Little Alberge. 

RIPE IN SEPTEMBER* 

The Montaubon. 

— Chevereuse, or Goat Peach. 

— Nobless ; came from France. 

— Old Newington ; native of England. 

— Elrouge ; so named from being the reverse of 
Goiirle, a famous nurseryman at Hoddesden, in 
the time of Charles II., by whom it was raised. 

— Rumbullion. 

— Admirable. 

— Red Magdalen, Persic, Bellegarde, Andillis, Pan 
and Narbonne. 

RIPE IN OCTOBER. 

The Nivet. 
— Catherine. 

It was about this time that forcing the peach began 



8 



to be practised ; for, in the above work, Switzer gives 
plans for hothonses for forcing fruit trees, especially 
the vine, including a description of the first which 
had been erected at Belvoir Castle by the Duke of 
Rutland. Miller's Gardener's Dictionary appeared 
about the same time, and gave some slight directions 
on the subject ; but the first separate treatise on the 
general culture of this fruit did not appear until 1768. 
It was a translation from the French, entitled " A 
Treatise on the Culture of Peach Trees,' ^ and con- 
tains much useful information. Next to this, in 1 785 
was pubhshed A Treatise on the Management of 
Peach and Nectarine Trees, either in forcing-houses 
or walls," by Mr. Kyle, gardener to Baron Steward, 
of Moredun, near Edinburgh. 

In 1786, Robert Browne, who filled a similar place 
in the establishment of Sir Harbord Harbord, of Gun- 
ton, in Norfolk, published one of the greatest of typo- 
graphical curiosities, entitled A Method to Preserve 
Peach and Nectarine Trees from Mildew\" By 
having only thirty words on a page, and using very 
thick paper, a volume of 64 pp. is made, though it 
contains nothing but a list of subscribers, and a recipe 
how to make the common wash of soft soap and sul- 
phur. In 1799, appeared, anonymously, a very 
excellent pamphlet, entitled Letters to a Friend on 
the Pruning of Peach Trees and Vines ;" but a still 
more important work was issued from the Paris press 



9 



in 1814, by Mr. Mozard, entitled " Sur T education du 
Peeher."* 

France much preceded us in the culture of this 
fruit, for without reference to the peaches of Gaul 
mentioned by Columella, we shall find that from the 
very beginning of the 1 7th century, the age of Louis 
XIV., the commune of Montreuil, near Paris, has 
been celebrated for the culture and training of the 
peach ; and its industrious and laborious inhabitants 
are almost all exclusively devoted to the same pursuit, 
and with equal success. The fame of Montreuil 
attracted the attention of the famous La Quintinie, 
the founder and director of the fruit and kitchen gar- 
den at Versailles. La Quintinie, who was then con- 
sidered the first trainer of trees in Europe, was asto- 
nished to hear that these simple villagers were success- 
ful, by following principles different from his own. He 
therefore engaged the son of Pepin, one of the most 
distinguished persons employed in training the peach 
in Montreuil, to leave his native village and come to 
Versailles, and train the trees in the royal gardens 
under his immediate inspection. It is unnecessary to 
mention the disputes that arose between young 
Pepin and his master, and we need only say that they 

* Watts, in his Biiliotheca Britannicay deceived by the simi- 
larity of the names in French, has included, in his list of works 
on the peach, the works of Noel and Reste on the Fisheries 
(des Peches.) 



10 



did not agree ; that the young Pepin returned to 
train his father's trees at Montreuil, and that the 
taille a la Quintinie continued to be prevalent every- 
where. The nobles and courtiers liked their gar- 
deners to train their trees a la Quintinie ; that all 
sensible gardeners refused to do so, and preferred 
leaving their places, or to be turned away, rather than 
submit to the absurd system of Quintinie. It was a 
true revolt of good sense against an absolute folly. 

However, justice was at length done to the Mon- 
treuil method, and that of the director of the fruit 
garden of Louis XIY. was condemned, as alike con- 
trary to nature and the interest of the cultivator. 
This equitable judgment, declared a century after the 
death of Quintinie, and confirmed by experience, can 
no longer be questioned. In short, the system of 
Quintinie was founded on this axiom, defer enjoy- 
ment, in order to enjoy for a longer time an axiom 
very just in many things, but altogether false in the 
culture of fruit trees. Quintinie cut in very much, in 
order to keep the trees growing without producing 
fruit, and in the hopes of thereby making them live 
much longer ; but it so happened, both to Quintinie, 
and to those w^ho followed his principles, that trees 
which bore fruit naturally, after being two or three 
years planted, did not do so when treated a la Quin- 
tinie till after ten years, and then only in a very small 
quantity, and sometimes not at all ; while trees pruned 



11 



according to the Montreuil method, at the age of ten 
years, paid a hundred times their cost, and a hundred 
times the rent of the land they occupied. 

It is not a little remarkable, that the pruning of 
peach trees was brought almost to perfection at Mon- 
treuil about the time of Louis XIV., people do not 
know very wxU how, and that it has remained in the 
same state till within the last dozen years. During 
that short period, it has been brought to perfection, 
as M. Lelieur has demonstrated in his Pomone Fran- 
caise. The pruning of peach trees in France has 
been reduced to three schools, viz. : — The school of 
Quintinie, of which the principle was to cut short, 
and to retard the production of fruit, and to lengthen 
the lives of the trees. Second, the school of Mon- 
treuil, of which the principle is to cut long, and the end 
to obtain abundance of fruit. Rogers Schabol is the 
most ardent of the numerous panegyrists of this mode. 
Third, the modern school, of which the principle 
is the same as that of the school of Montreuil, and 
the end to obtain trees full and regular in their 
branches, without these being confused or crossing 
each other, and well furnished with fruit. M. le 
Count Lelieur was the founder of the school in 1817, 
in collecting its scattered elements, w^hich already ex- 
isted in the practice of many cultivators, and in join- 
ing thereto the results of his own experience. The 
addition which Count Lelieur may be said to have 



12 



made to the Montreuil method, consists in filling up 
the two sides and the centre of the tree with branches. 
In the Montreuil method, there are two main 
branches allowed to every tree. These are, in 
general, trained in at an angle of 45 degs., and 
the side branches proceeding from them are laid 
in in such a manner as to cover great part of the 
wall. There is always, however, a space in the 
centre of the tree and also one on each side of it next 
the ground, which is left naked. Now, the grand 
object of Lelieur's method, or that of the modern 
school, is to fill up these naked spaces with bearing 
wood. This is to be effected by shortening the tw^o 
main branches when young, so as to produce four 
branches ; and the side shoots of these being trained 
in with care, the wall will generally be found filled 
up. In doing this, when the lower branches of the 
tree are found weak, they are not trained in like the 
others, but allowed to grow right out for two or three 
months, during which time they acquire a degree of 
strength as great as that of the branches on the upper 
part of the tree. The methods of the three schools 
are evidently different modifications of what in Eng- 
land is called fan-training ; and there can be no doubt 
whatever, that the modern method, its object being 
to cover the wall completely with wood, is by far the 
best. 

The origin of training the peach and the vine 



13 



against walls is thus given by Rogers Scliabol. A 
cultivator of Montreuil having by chance thrown a 
peach against a wall with a south aspect, it grew up 
and produced fruit, which, from the shelter and heat 
of the wall, were found to be larger, more succulent, 
and of better flavour, than those produced on stand- 
ard trees. This cultivator, seeing that the heat of 
the wall was favourable to the peach, fastened the 
shoots to it with nails and ties, and found the fruit 
still larger and better. In wdiat year this cultivator 
lived is not stated ; but he is considered as much 
more likely to be the inventor than Girardot, who 
lived in the time of Louis XIV., when training the 
peach had already been practised at Montreuil suiS- 
ciently long to produce young Pepin, who w^as the 
pupil of his father, already celebrated for training the 
peach. {Annates d' Horticulture xix.) 

The deserved celebrity of Montreuil for peaches 
still continues ; but although many have, no doubt, 
heard of Peches de Montreuil, Figues d'Argenteuil, 
x\bricots de Triel, and Raisins de Fontainebleau, yet, 
perhaps, few have ever visited these places. It is 
generally known that French gardeners' delight is 
" specialities when they find any kind of culture 
particularly lucrative, or when the soil and air of one 
place is more congenial than another, that they almost 
invariably abandon a general trade or unfavourable 
situation, and direct all their energies to that one 



14 



favourite object. Not only is this the case with fruit, 
but equally so with flowers and plants. Montreuil- 
aux-Peches is about four miles east of Paris, and, to- 
gether with the adjoining village of Bagnolet, has 
long been renowned for its peaches and nectarines ; 
so much so, that Paris and the country for 50 miles 
round is almost entirely supplied from these two 
places. It is, in fact, their staple article of trade, 
and one by no means inconsiderable, if report speaks 
truly of the amount, which is stated to be, on the 
average, 80,000 francs a year, independent of other 
fruits. An exact estimate of a produce so entirely 
regulated by the state of the weather is very difficult 
to ascertain. The year 1841 was unproductive, and 
the long continuance of wet and cold also materially 
checked the consumption: 1842, on the contrary, 
was exceedingly prolific, and the excessively hot wea- 
ther in August augmented the demand in an equal 
ratio ; and it is said that the sale that season realised 
more than 120,000 francs. Large as this sum may 
at first sight appear, it will not, upon reflection, be 
found exaggerated, when the number and extent of 
gardens is taken into consideration. The markets 
and streets of Paris were literally glutted at the end 
of July ; and in August, fine fruit was sold at one 
penny, and very good at a halfpenny each. The 
gardens vary in size, from one-half to a whole acre, 
and are surrounded with walls about 8 ft. high, rising 



15 

amphitheatrically one above another to the top of the 
hills. They give the neighbourhood a picturesque 
appearance. The soil is generally a deep sandy loam, 
with here and there a mixture of blue clay, similar to 
that of Montmatre and Pere la Chaise. IMost of the 
trees are old, yet their general appearance is healthy^ 
which the cultivators attribute as much to their being 
worked upon almond stocks as to the suitability 
of the soil. Fan-shaped training is usually adopted ; 
but another form, called Espalier carre," is now 
coming into vogue. M. Lepere, of Montr euil, claims 
to be the originator of this system, which, however, 
is warmly disputed by some others. It appears to 
be little, if at all, different from the horizontal train- 
ing which has for many years been practised in Eng- 
land. As the design of these gardeners is profit, it 
may readily be supposed that the varieties are chiefly 
confined to those which are most prolific, or produce 
the finest fruit in their different seasons of maturity. 
At almost every cultivator's are the Petite and Grosse 
Mignonne, Chevreuse hative, Galande, Magdeleine, 
Bourdine, Admirable, Belle de Paris, Royale, Pavie, 
and Teton de Venus, with a few nectarines, such as 
Yiolette hative, Musque, and Gross Violette. {Gard. 
Chron. 1842, 870.) 



16 



BOTANICAL CHARACTERS. 

The peach, Persica vulgaris^ was distinguished by 
early botanists as Amygdalus Persica^ and belongs to 
the Icosandria Monogynia class and order of the 
Linnsean system, and to the Rosacese of the natural 
arrangement. In its natural state the tree is under 
the middle size, with spreading branches ; Leaves con- 
duplicate when young, lanceolate, glabrous, and ser- 
rated \ Flowers almost sessile, solitary or twin, rising 
from the scaly buds earlier than the leaves, with 
reddish calyxes, and pale or dark red corollas. Fruity 
a fleshy drupe, with a velvety epicarp ; roundish, 
generally pointed, with a longitudinal groove ; the 
pulp, or sarcocarp, large, fleshy, succulent, usually 
white or yellowish, but sometimes reddish, and 
abounding with a grateful sweet-acid juice. The 
stone hard, having its shell, or putamen, wrinkled 
with irregular furrows, and its kernel bitter. 

Its native country, both by the ancients and mo- 
derns, has been considered to be Persia, but it is also 
found wild in various parts of Asiatic Turkey. Pallas 
also found it in the southern districts of the Caucasus ; 
and it has been truly observed, that from its fre- 
quency of occurrence, and its fruitfulness with but 
little cultivation between 30 and 40 degs. N. latitude. 



17 



we may conclude that within them is its most favour- 
able habitat. 

It endures our usual winters uninjured, and even 
succeeds as a standard in latitudes of N. America 
where the winters are much colder, and the summers 
hotter than with us. This is in conformity with 
the well-ascertained fact, that all deciduous trees 
suffer less from severe frost in winter, if their wood is 
perfectly matured by sufficiently warm summers, 
than where the frosts are less severe, but the summers 
also more temperate. Hence in the north of Eng- 
land young peaches are often injured by degrees of 
cold that do not affect others of similar age when 
exposed to them near London. 

"Where the mean temperature of the summer months 
is above 70 degs., or that of the warmest month 
above 75 degs., as at Rome and at New York, the 
melting varieties of this fruit are not so richly succu- 
lent as when grown against south walls in the more 
temperate summers of London and Paris. But, on 
the other hand, the firm-fleshed or clingstone varie- 
ties are preferred in America, though but little es- 
teemed in England. 

The peach is usually considered a short-lived tree, 
but we have no record of the age it is known to attain 
in its native state. When judiciously cultivated in 
England, it will continue vigorous and fruitful at the 
age of forty years. 

c 



18 



The late Mr. Knight inclined to the opinion that 
the almond and peach are mere varieties of the same 
species, and asks, if the peach be an originally dis- 
tinct species, where could it have lain concealed from 
the Creation to the reign of Claudius Caesar?" We 
do not incline to the opinion that the almond and 
peach are specifically the same ; but if we did, we 
should not think that the opinion was strengthened 
by the negative fact alluded to by Mr. Knight, even 
if it were a fact, which it is not. We have seen that 
it was noticed by some of the earliest authorities ex- 
tant, and though Cato does not mention the peach, yet 
he is equally silent regarding the almond. The evidence 
from Mr. Knight's experiments, however, preponde- 
rate towards shewing that though the blossoms of 
the almond may be impregnated with pollen from 
either the peach or nectarine, yet, that plants raised 
from this hybridization are themselves incapable of 
producing fertile pollen, and therefore shewing that 
the offspring is a true mule ; infertile, because engen- 
dered between two distinct species. 

Although it is doubtful whether the almond and 
peach are specifically the same, there appears to be 
much less doubt as to the latter being parent of the 
nectarine. 

In the Linnean Correspondence, it is stated, that a 
tree bought for a nectarine produced peaches ; the next 
year it bore nectarines and peaches, and continued do- 



19 



ing so for twenty years after. P. CoUinsoD informs Lin- 
naeus that at Lord Wilmington's a tree produced both 
nectarines and peaches. Sir J. E. Smith, the editor, 
says, that several instances of this have occurred ; 
and that he was presented with a fruit half nectarine 
and half peach. It grew on a tree which usually 
bore nectarines and peaches ; but in two seasons, at 
some years' distance from each other, the same tree 
produced half a dozen of these combined fruits."^ 
Collinson mentions that he saw both fruits on the same 
tree close to each other ; and that a peach produced 
a nectarine from a stone, and not a peach, in his own 
garden. Without knowing the foregoing facts, Pro- 
fessor Chapman also stated, that in Virginia peach 
trees lived a number of years, and that when they 
were very old, he had often seen them bear necta- 
rines. The fact is well known, he says, to all old na^ 
tives of Virginia. {Gard, Mag. vi. 596.) 



* This is by no means an uncommon occurrence. — Ed. 



20 



CHEMICAL COMPOSITION. 



The peach was analyzed by M. Berard, both in an 
unripe and ripe state, and found composed of 





UnriD6. 


Ripe. 




0.04 








0.10 




trace 


16.48 




4.10 


5.12 




3.61 


1.86 




0.76 


0.17 




2.70 


1.80 




trace 


trace 




89.39 


74.87 




100.00 


100.40 



{ThomsoYis Organic Chem, Vegetables, 890.) 

Hydrocyanic or Prussic acid is a component of the 
leaves, flowers, and kernel of the fruit. 



VARIETIES.* 

Ahricotee (Abricotee a Noyeau partage. Admirable 
Jaune, Grosse Janne, Grosse Peche Jamie Tardive, 
D'Abricot, De Burai, D' Orange, Sandalie Hermaphro- 
dite, Yellow Admirable), — Leaves with reniform 
glands, flowers large, flesh melting, colour yellowish 
red, size large, quality indifferent, season beginning 
of October. 

Acton Scot, — Leaves crenate, with globose glands, 

* Authorities, Hort. Soc. Catalogue ; Lindley^s Guide to the 
Orchard ; Switzer, &c. 



21 



flowers large, pale rose, flesh melting, colour pale 
yellowish and red, middle-sized, quality first-rate, season 
end of August, not large but handsome, and a very 
excellent early peach. Raised by Mr. Knight in 1 8 1 1 , 
by impregnating the Noblesse with the Red Nutmeg. 

Admirable, Early, (Admirable (English), L' Admi- 
rable (French), Belle de Yitry (of the Bon Jardi- 
nier). — Leaves crenate, with globose glands, flowers 
middle-sized, pale-red, fruit middle-sized, flesh melt- 
ing, quality good. 

Admirable, Jaune, see Abricotee, 

Admirable, Late (Royal, La Royale, Peche Royale, 
Bourdine, Boudine, Boudiu, Narbonne, French Bour- 
dine, Teton de Venus, Belle Bausse of some. Belle 
Bauce ib., Judd's Melting, Late Purple of some, 
Motteux's, Pourpree Tardive ib.), — Leaves with glo- 
bose glands, flovrers small, flesh melting, colour pale 
yellowish and red, size large, quality first-rate, season 
middle or end of September ; one of the very best late 
peaches, and ought to be in every collection ; is very 
proper for the peach-house to succeed the earlier 
sorts. 

Admirable, Late, see Belle de Vitry (of Duhamel) 

Admirable, Yelloiv, see Abricotee. 

Admirable, Scarlet, (Dragon). 

Alberge (of some), see Portugal. 

Alberge, Yellow, (Purple Alberge, Red Alberge, 
Golden Mignonne, Gold Fleshed, xllberge Jaune, 
Peche Jaune). — Leaves crenate, with globose glands, 
flowers pale crimson, small, flesh melting, colour yel- 
low and darkish red, middle-sized, quality indifferent, 
season end of August and beginning of September, 
flesh yellow. Bears as a standard at Brompton. 

Alberge Jaune, see Rosanna. 

Almond Peach. — Leaves serrated, glandless, flowers 
large and pink, flesh melting, colour pale yellowish 
and red, middle-sized, quality indiff'erent, season middle 



22 



of September. Raised by Mr. Knight, in 1815, from 
an almond, impregnated by a peach. 

American Clingstone y see Braddick's North Ameri- 
can. 

Anne, see Early Anne. 
AnsleySy Colonel ^ see Barrington. 
Avant, see Grosse Mignonne 
Avanty Bears Early, see Bear's Early. 
Avant, Blanche, see White Nutmeg. 
Avant, Early, see Pourpree Hative. 
Avant, Early Purple, see Grosse Mignonne. 
Avant, Peche Jaune, 

Avant, Johnson s Purple, see Grosse Mignonne. 

Avant, Johnso7i^s Early Purple, see ih. 

Avant, Peche de Troyes, see White Nutmeg. 

Avant, Purple, see Grosse Mignonne. 

Avant, Red, see Bed Nutmeg. 

Avant Rouge, see Red Nutmeg. 

Avant Rouge, (of some,) see Pourpree Hative. 

Avant, White, see Early Anne. 

Barrington (Buckingham Mignonne, Colonel Ans- 
ley's.)— Leaves with globose glands, flowers large, 
flesh melting, colour pale yellow and red, size large, 
quality first-rate, season middle of September, tree 
vigorous, and a good bearer, not subject to mildew. 
Raised about 40 years ago by Mr. Barrington, of 
Barwood, in Surrey. 

Bears Early, (Bear's Early Avant). 

Belle Bausse, see Grosse Mignonne. 

Belle Bauce, see ib. 

Belle Beaute, see ih. 

Belle de Beaucaire, — Leaves with globose glands, 
flowers small, flesh melting, colour pale green and 
darkish red, size large, quality first-rate, season be- 
ginning of September. Very like Bellegarde. 

Belle Chevreuse, (Chevreuse, Early Chevreuse). — 
Leaves with reniform glands, flowers small, flesh 



23 



melting, colour pale yellow and red, size large, quality- 
indifferent, season beginning of September. Not so 
good as the Chancellor, to which it is allied. 
Belle Tillemount, 

Belle de Vitry, of Duhamel (Late Admirable, 
Bellis, Admirable Tardive). — Leaves doubly serrated 
and glandless, flowers small and dull red, fruit mid- 
dle-sized, flesh melting, greenish yellow, quality good. 
Ripe end of September. Requires a S. or S.E. wall. 

Belle de Vitry, (of the Bon Jardinier,) see Early 
Admirable. 

Belle de Paris, see Malta. 

Bellis, see Belle de Yitry of Duhamel. 

Betterave, see Sanguinole 

Bellegarde, (Galande, Noir de Montreuill, Violette 
Hative of the English, Yiolette Hative Grosse ib. 
Early Galande of some, Brentford Mignonne, Ron- 
alds' s Brentford Mignonne, French Royal George, 
Smooth-leaved Royal George of some. Large Yiolet, 
French Yiolette Hative of some English nurseries 
only, for the Peches Yiolettes of the French are Nec- 
tarines). — Leaves crenate, with globose glands, flowers 
small, reddish pink, flesh melting, colour pale green 
and dark red, size large, quality first-rate, season be- 
ginning and middle of September. A very handsome 
and excellent peach, forces well, succeeds Royal 
George and Grosse Mignonne, aud keeps better than 
they do after being gathered. 

Black, Swainsoris (Swainson's). — Leaves with 
globose glands, flowers small, flesh melting, colour 
dark red, middle-sized, season beginning of Septem- 
ber. 

Blood Clingstone (Claret Clingstone) . — Leaves 
serrated, glandless, flowers large, flesh clingstone, 
colour dark red, middle-sized, quality indifferent, sea- 
son October. 

Bloody^ see Sanguinole. 



24 



Boudin, see Late Admirable. — Said to have been 
raised by a French gardener named Bourdine in the 
reign of Louis XIV. 

Boudme, see ib. Bourdine, see ib, 

Bourdine, French, see ib. 

Bourdine, Early, of some, see Royal George. 

BraddicKs North American (Braddick's, Braddiek's 
American, Braddick's American Yellow, American 
Clingstone). — Leaves crenate, with globose glands, 
flowers pale pink, small, flesh clingstone, colour yel- 
lowish red, size large, quality bad, season middle and 
end of September, flesh yellow, firm, and coarse. 

Braddick's New York, — Leaves with reniform 
glands, flowers small, flesh melting, colour pale 
green and red, middle-sized, quality indifl'erent, season 
beginning of September. 

BraddicK s South American (South American) . 

Braddick's Red, — Leaves serrated, glandless, flow- 
ers large, flesh melting, colour pale green and darkish 
red, size large, quality first-rate, season end of August 
and beginning of September. Resembling the Royal 
George. 

Braddick's Summer, — Leaves with reniform glands, 
flowers small, flesh melting, colour pale green and red, 
size large, quality indifferent, season end of August. 

Burai, see Abricotee. 

BurchelV s Early, Burlington Large Early. 

Cambray, — Leaves serrated, glandless, flowers 
large, flesh melting, colour pale green and red, size 
large, quality first-rate, season end of August. Re- 
sembles Malta. 

Cardinal (Le Cardinal, Cardinal de Furstenburgh) . 
— Leaves serrated, glandless, flowers large, flesh 
melting, colour red, size large, quality indifferent, 
season October, flesh red like beetroot ; of little merit 
in this climate. 

Caroline, Kennedy s. — Leaves with reniform glands. 



25 



flowers small, flesh clingstone, colour yellow and red, 
middle-sized, quality indiff'erent, season end of Sep- 
tember, flesh yellow. 

Catherine. — Leaves crenate, with reniform glands, 
flowers small, reddish, flesh clingstone, colour pale 
green and red, size large, quality first-rate, season end 
of September and beginning of October ; one of the 
best late clingstone peaches ; requires a S. wall. 

Catherine^ Green (of the Americans). — Leaves 
with globose glands, flowers small, flesh melting, co- 
lour pale green and red, middle-sized, quality bad, sea- 
son end of September. 

Catherine^ Williami — Leaves with reniform 
glands, flowers small, flesh clingstone, colour pale 
green and red, size large, quality indifi'erent, season end 
of September and beginning of October ; very like the 
Catherine. 

Catline, — Leaves with globose glands, flowers 
small, flesh clingstone, colour pale yellow and red, 
middle-sized, quality indifl'erent, season middle and 
end of September. 

CA«wceZ/zere(VeritableChancelliere, GrandesFleurs) . 

Chancellor (Chancelliere var. of Duhamel, Noisette, 
Late Chancellor, Steward's Late Galande, Edgar's 
Late Melting). — Leaves crenate, with reniform glands, 
flowers reddish, small, flesh melting, colour pale yel- 
low and red, size large, quality first-rate, season middle 
of September, flesh deeply tinged with red at the 
stone. Said to have been raised from a seed of the 
Chevreux by M. de Seguier, Chancellor of France. 

Chancellor, French, see Royal George. 

Chevreuse, see Belle Chevreuse. 

Chevreuse Early, see Belle Chevreuse. 

Chevreuse Italic, 

Chevreuse, Late (Chevreuse Tardive, Pourpree). 
Chevreuse, Yellow, — Leaves with globose glands, 
flowers small, flesh melting. 



26 



Chinese Peach, see Flat Peach of China. 

Claret Clingstone, see Blood Clingstone. 

Congress, — Leaves with reniform glands, flowers 
small, flesh clingstone, colour pale yellow and red, 
size large, quality indifl*erent, season end of Septem- 
her ; resembles the Catherine. 

Cothelstone Seedling, 

Cooper s Early, — Leaves with globose glands, 
flowers small, flesh clingstone, colour pale yellow and 
red, middle-sized, quality bad, season beginning of 
September. 

Craavexfs, — Leaves with globose glands, flowers 
small, flesh melting, colour pale yellow and red, mid- 
dle-sized, quality indifl'erent, season end of Septem- 
ber. 

Dorsetshire, see Nivette. 

Douhle Blossomed (Pecher a Fleurs Doubles, 
Pecher Nain a Fleurs Doubles, Pecher a Fleurs Semi- 
doubles) . — Leaves with reniform glands, flowers large, 
flesh melting, colour pale yellow and red, size small, 
season beginning of September. Worthless as regards 
its fruit. 

BouhleMontagne (Montague, Montauban) . — Leaves 
serrated, glandless, flowers large, flesh white, melting, 
Apparently the same as Noblesse, yet it ripens some 
days earlier, and cannot like that have a Muscle plum 
stock. 

Double Swalsh (Swalze or Swolze, Swalch, Dutch). 
— Leaves crenate, vdih reniform glands, flowers small, 
dark red, fruit middle sized, pale yellow and deep red, 
flesh melting, season early September. Brought to 
England by Lord Peterborough before 1729. 

Double Swalsh, (of some,) see Royal George. 

Double de Troyes, see Petite Mignonne. 

Downton, Early, — Leaves crenate, globose glands, 
flowers large, pale rose, flesh melting, pale yellow and 
red, middle-sized, quality first-rate, season end of Au- 



27 



gust. Good, but scarcely equal to the Acton Scot, 
which it otherwise resembles. Raised by Mr. Knight 
in 1812. 

Br agon, see Scarlet Admirable. 

DruselUy see Sanguinolle. 

Butch, see Double Swalsh. 

Bumiington Beauty » — Leaves serrated, glandless, 
flowers large, flesh melting, colour pale green and red, 
size large, quality first-rate, season end of August and 
beginning of September. Very like Noblesse. 

Early Anne (Anne, White Avant of some). — 
Leaves doubly serrated, glandless, flowers large, nearly 
white, flesh melting, colour white, middle-sized, 
quality indifferent, season beginning and middle of 
August, handsome and tolerably well flavoured, but 
earliness is its chief recommendation. Raised a cen- 
tury and half since, and said to be named after the 
celebrated Anne Dunch, of Pudsey, Berks. 

Early French, see Grosse Mignonne. 

Early May, see ib. 

Early Purple, see Veritable Pourpree Hative. 

Early Purple, NeiVs, see Grosse Mignonne. 

Early Purple of Kew, see Royal Charlotte. 

Early Purple, True, see Veritable Pourpree Hative. 

Early Red, — Leaves with globose glands, flowers 
large, flesh melting, colour pale yellow and red, 
middle-sized, quahty indiff*erent, season end of Au- 
gust. 

Early Sweetwater. 

Early Vineyard, see Grosse Mignonne. 

Edgar s Late Melting, see Chancellor. 

Emperor of Russia (Serrated, New Serrated, 
Unique, New Cut-leaved). — Leaves serrated, gland- 
less, flowers small, flesh melting, colour pale yellow 
and dark red, size large, quality indifferent, season 
September, seems a shy bearer. 

Flat Peach of China, (Chinese Peach, Pen To, 



28 



Java Peacli). — Leaves crenate, with reniform glands, 
flowers large, fruit flat, about 2y inches in diameter, 
but only f inch thick, flesh melting, yellow with beau- 
tiful crimson near the stone, size small, quality indif- 
ferent, season beginning or middle of September. May 
be forced and ripened very early in pots with greater 
facility than any other variety ; on this account it 
merits some estimation, besides being an object of 
curiosity. First ripened in England by Mr. Braddick 
in 1819. 

Fleurs Doubles, Pecker a, see Double Blossomed. 
Fleurs SemidoubleSy Fecher a, see Double Blos- 
s omed. 

Ford's Seedling. — Leaves doubly serrated, gland- 
less, flowers large, flesh melting, colour pale green and 
red, size large, quality first-rate, season end of August 
and beginning of September ; resembles much the 
Noblesse, but is not its superior. 

ForsterSy see Grosse Mignonne. 

Foi'ster's Early, see ih. 

Galande, see Bellegarde. 

Galande, Ronald's Early, see ib, 

Galande, Ronald's Seedling, see ib, 

Galande, Early, see ib, 

Galande, Fuller s, — Leaves with globose glands, 
flowers small. 
Galande, New, 

Galande, Steward's Late, see Chancellor. 

George the Fourth. — Leaves large, acutely crenate, 
with globose glands, flowers small, dull red, flesh 
melting, colour pale yellow and red, size large, quality 
first-rate, season beginning of September. Raised 
by Mr. Gill, of New York, in 1819. 

Gloria, Be, 

Gold Fleshed, see Yellow xilberge. 
Grandeville, — Leaves serrated, glandless, flowers 
large. 



29 



Golden Purple, — Leaves with reniform glands, 
flowers small, flesh clingstone, colour yellow and dark 
red, middle-sized, quality bad, season middle of Sep- 
tember. 

Grande Monarqiie, — Leaves with reniform glands, 
flowers small. 

Gross Jaiine, see Abricotee. 

Grosse Jaime Tardive , see Abricotee. 

Grosse de Vitry, 

Heath (Fine Heath, Heath Clingstone, Eed 
Heath). — Leaves with reniform glands, flowers small, 
flesh clingstone, colour pale yellow and red, size large, 
quality first-rate, season October. In a hot season 
one of the very best late Clingstones, but the climate 
of this country is in general too cold for it. 

HemsMrke, — Leaves doubly serrated, glandless, 
flowers pale rose, large, flesh melting, colour pale 
green and red, middle-sized, quality first-rate, season 
end of August. Raised at the Royal Gardens, Ken- 
sington, at the beginning of the present century. 

Holmes'' Sy see Twyford. 

Hoffmann' Sy see Morrisania Pound. 

Hoffmann s Favourite. — Leaves with reniform 
glands, flowers small, flesh melting, colour white and 
red, middle-sized, season beginning of September. 

Hoffmann s White, — Leaves with reniform glands, 
flowers small, flesh melting, colour white and red, 
middle-sized, quality first-rate, season beginning or 
middle of September 

Incomparable (Pavie Admirable) . — Leaves crenate, 
with reniform glands, flowers small, flesh clingstone, 
colour pale yellow and red, size large, quality bad, 
season end of September and beginning of October. 
Larger than the Catherine, but not so good. 

Incomparable en Beaute, — Leaves with globose 
glands, flowers small, flesh melting, colour pale yel- 



30 



low and greenish red, size large, quality indifferent, 
season middle of September. 

hicomparahle, White Blossomed (A\^hite Blos- 
somed). — Leaves with reniform glands, flowers large, 
flesh melting, colour white, size large, quality indif- 
ferent, season end of August and beginning of Sep- 
tember. Singular on account of its white blossoms 
and pale fruit. 

B' Ispahan (De Perse). — Leaves serrrated with re- 
niform glands, flowers large, flesh melting, colour 
green and red, size small, quality bad, season middle 
of September. 

Italian^ see Malta. 

Java Peach, see Flat Peach of China. 
Judd's Melting, see Late Admirable. 

Kennedy^ s Carolina Clingstone, see Kennedy's 
Lemon Clingstone. 

Kensington, see Grosse Mignonne. 

Kew Seedling (Kew Royal Seedling). — Leaves with 
globose glands, flowers small, flesh melting, colour 
pale yellow and dark red, middle-sized, quality indifi*e- 
rent, season beginning of September. 

Knapp Castle Seedling, — Leaves serrated, gland- 
less, flowers large, flesh melting, colour pale green and 
red, size large, quality first-rate, season end of August 
and beginning of September. Very like Noblesse. 

Knight' s Early (Knight's Early Seedling). — Leaves 
with globose glands, flowers large, flesh melting, co- 
lour pale green and dark red ; middle-sized, season 
middle of August. Resembles the Acton Scot, nearly 
as good. 

Langier. 
Large Early, 

Large Violet, see Bellegarde. 
Late Pnrple (Pourpree Tardive). — Leaves with re- 
niform glands, flowers small, flesh melting, colour 



31 



pale green and dark red, size large, quality indiiFerent, 
season end of September ; allied to the Chancellor, 

Late Purple (of some), see Late Admirable. 

Lockyey's, see Royal George. 

Lord Fauconberg' s, see Royal Charlotte. 

Lord Nelson's, see Royal Charlotte. 

Lemon Clingstone, — Leaves with reniform glands, 
flowers small, flesh clingstone, colour yellow and red, 
size large, quality indifi*erent, season end of Septem- 
ber, flesh yellow, like that of the two following ; all 
three are esteemed in America for sweetmeats. 

Lemon Clingstone (Hoyte's). — Leaves with globose 
glands, flowers small, flesh clingstone, colour yellow 
and darkish red, size large, quality indifl*erent, season 
end of September. 

Lemon Clingstone, Kennedy s (Kennedy's Carolina 
Clingstone, Pine Apple Clingstone, Pine Apple, Large 
Yellow Pine Apple, Red Mallacoton). — Leaves with 
reniform glands, flowers small, flesh clingstone, colour 
yellow and red, size large, quality indifl^erent, season 
end of September. 

Limon, 

Lows Large Melting, — Leaves serrated, glandless, 
flowers small, flesh melting, colour pale yellow and 
greenish red, size large, quality indifi'erent, season be- 
ginning of September. Allied to the Royal George, 
larger but not so good. 

Madeleine, — Leaves serrated, glandless, flowers 
small. 

Madeleine Blanche, see White Magdalen, 
Madeleine de Bolhviller, — Leaves serrated, gland- 
less, flowers large, flesh melting, colour pale green and 
dark red, middle-sized, quality first-rate, season be- 
ginning or middle of September. 

Madeleine de Coursoii (Red Magdalen of Miller, 
Madeleine Rouge, Rouge Paysanne, French Magda- 
len). — Leaves doubly serrated, glandless, flowers pale 



32 



blush, large, flesh melting, colour pale yellow and red, 
middle-sized, quality first-rate, season end of Au- 
gust and beginning of September, flesh with very little 
red at the stone ; the tree is a good bearer, but rather 
tender. 

Madeleine a Moyennes Fleurs, see Royal Charlotte. 
Madeleine Rouge Tardive, see ib, 
Madeleine a F elites Fleurs, see ib, and Royal 
George. 

Madeleine Tardive, see Royal Charlotte. 
Magdalen Red, see Royal George. 
Magdalen Red, (of Miller,) see Madeleine de 
C our son. 

Madeleine a Mamelon, 

Magdalen White (Madeleine Blanche, Montague 
Blanche). — Leave doubly serrated, glandless, flowers 
pale rose, large, flesh melting, colour yellowish white 
and red, middle-sized, quality indifi'erent, season 
middle or end of August. 

Malta (Italian, Peche de Malte, Belle de Paris, 
Make de Normandie). — Leaves serrated, glandless, 
flowers pale, large, flesh melting, colour pale green and 
red, size large, quality first-rate, season end of August 
and beginning of September, hardy ; fruit keeps well 
after being gathered, and bears carriage ; deserves 
cultivation, and would probably succeed as a standard. 

Mammoth (Sachamoona) . 

Marlborough, see Grosse Mignonne. 

Melecoton, Gros, see Pavie de Pompone. 

Mellacoton, Red, see Kennedy's Lemon Clingstone. 

Mellish's Favourite, see Noblesse. 

Mignonne, American, — Leaves with reniform 
glands, flowers small, flesh melting, colour pale yel- 
low and red, size large, quality indifi'erent, season end 
of September ; near the Chancellor. 

Mignonne, Brentford, see Bellegarde. 

Mignonne, Buckingham, see Barrington. 



33 



Mignonne, CohVs. — Leaves with globose glands. 

Mignonne, Dorsetshire, — Leaves with reniform 
glands, flowers small, flesh melting, colour pale yellow 
and dark red, size large, quality indifferent, season 
end of September. 

Mignonne, Early, see Petite Mignonne. 

Mignonne, Earliest, — Leaves with globose glands, 
flowers small. 

Mignonne, Golden, see Yellow Alberge. 

Mignonne, Grosse (Grim wood's Royal George, 
Grimwood's New Royal George, Large French Mig- 
nonne, French Mignonne, Mignonne, Vineuse, Ye- 
lontee, Yelontee de Merlet, French Grosse Mignonne, 
Swiss Mignonne, Pourpree de Normandie, Pourpree 
Hative of some. Purple Hative, ib., Early Purple 
Avant, Purple Avant, Avant, Early May, Early 
French, Early Yineyard, Padley's Early Purple, Neil's 
Early Purple, Neal's Early Purple, Johnson's Early 
Purple, Johnson's Purple Avant, Forster's, Forster's 
Early, Ronald's Early Galande, Ronald's Seedling 
Galande, Belle Bausse, Belle Bauce, Belle Beaute, 
Early Yineyard, Kensington, Royal Kensington, La 
Royale of some. Superb Royal, Yineuse de Fromentin, 
Transparent). — Leaves crenate, with globose glands, 
flowers pale rose and large, flesh melting, colour yellow 
and red, size large, quality first-rate, season end of 
August and early in September; good bearer and 
forces well ; trees not subject to mildew. 

Mignonne, Griffin's, see Royal George. 

Mignonne, Lockyer's, see ib, 

Mignonne, Large Fruited, — Leaves serrated, gland- 
less, flowers large. 

Mignonne, Lord Fauconberg^ s, see Royal Charlotte. 

Mignonne, Millet's, see Royal George. 

Mignonne, Petite (Small Mignonne, Early Mig- 
nonne, Mignonette, Double de Troyes, Peche de 
Troyes). — Leaves crenate, with reniform glands, flow- 

D 



34 



ers small, flesh melting, colour pale yellow and red, 
size small, quality first-rate, season beginning or mid- 
dle of August ; succeeds the Brown Nutmeg. 
Mignonne, Purple, 

Mignoiine, RonalcCs Brentfordy see Bellegarde. 
Mignoime, Hoy at, 

Mignonne, TVohurn Early .- — Leaves serrated, gland- 
less, flowers large. 

Mignonne, Yelloiv. — Leaves with reniform glands, 
flowers small, flesh melting, colour pale green and 
pale red, size small, quality indifierent, season end of 
September, flesh dull yellow. 

Monstrous Fame of Pompone, see Pavie de Pom- 
pone. 

Morrisania Pound (Morrison's Pound, Pound, 
Hofi^man's). — Leaves with globose glands, flowers 
small, flesh melting, colour pale green and red, size 
large, quality first-rate, season middle or end of Sep- 
tember. One of the best of the xAmerican varieties, 
yet its merit is not quite equal to that of the Late 
Admirable, the one it most resembles. 

Montague, see Double Montague. 

Montague Blanche, see White Magdalen. 

Montaubau, see Double jNIontagne. 

3Iotteux's, see Late Admirable. 

Mountaineer. — Leaves with globose glands, flowers 
large, flesh melting, colour pale yellow and red, size 
large, quality first-rate, season beginning of Septem- 
ber ; fruit sometimes partly smooth : raised between 
the Red Nutmeg peach and Yiolette Hative necta- 
rine. 

Xain, Pecker (Pecher Nain d' Orleans, Dwarf Or- 
leans, Pot Peach) . — Leaves serrated, glandless, flowers 
large, flesh melting, colour pale green and red. 

Nain a Fleurs Doubles, see Double Blossomed. 

Narhonue, see Late Admirable. 

Neivington, Old (Newington). — Leaves doubly ser- 



35 

rated, glandless, flowers pale pink, large, flesh cling- 
stone, colour pale green and red, size large, quality 
first-rate, season beginning of September. Very good 
as a Clingstone peach. 

Neivington Smitlis (Early Newington, Newington, 
Smith's Early Newington). — Leaves serrated, gland- 
less, flowers pale pink and large, flesh cUngstone, colour 
pale green and red, middle-sized, quality indifferent, 
season end of August and beginning of September. 

Newington (of the Americans). — Leaves with glo- 
bose glands, flowers small, flesh clingstone, colour 
pale yellow and dark red, size large, quality indifl*erent, 
season end of September and beginning of October. 

New, Cut-leaved, see Emperor of Russia. 

New Serrated, see ih» 

Nivette (Nivette Velontee, Yelontee Tardive, Dor- 
setshire). — Leaves crenate, with globose glands, flow- 
ers pale red and small, flesh melting, colour pale green 
and red, size large, quality first-rate, season middle of 
September ; very like Late Admirable, but the tree is 
said to be more tender. 

Noblesse (Mellish' s Favourite, Vanguard, Lord Mon- 
tague's Noblesse). — Leaves doubly serrated, without 
glands, flowers pale blush and large, flesh melting, 
colour pale green and red, size large, quality first-rate, 
season end of August and beginning of September ; 
one of the very best, either for forcing or for the open 
wall. G. Lindley says that the Noblesse and Van- 
guard are not the same. 

Noblesse, Early, 

Noblesse of Oatlands, — Leaves serrated, glandless, 
flowers large. 

Noblesse, Pitmaston Seedling, 

Noblesse, Seedling, (New Noblesse). — Leaves 
doubly serrate, glandless, flowers large and pale pink, 
fruit middle-sized, flesh green and yellow, quality first- 
rate. Ripe early in September. 

D 2 



36 



Noire de Montr euil, see Bellegarde. 
Noisette, see Chancellor. 
Nutmeg, Early Yellow, 

Nutmeg, Feriods Early, — Leaves with reniform 
glands, flowers small. 

Nutmeg, Red (Brown Nutmeg, Early Red Nutmeg, 
Avant Rouge, xlvant Peche de Troy es, Red Avant) . — 
Leaves small, crenate, with reniform glands, flowers 
large, flesh melting, colour pale yellow and dark red, 
size small, quality indifi'erent, season end of July and 
beginning of August. 

Nutmeg, White (Early White Nutmeg, Avant 
Blanche, White Avant). — Leaves small, serrated, 
glandless, flowers pale blush and large, flesh melting, 
colour white, size small, quality indifferent, season 
middle of J uly ; has little merit except that of being 
the earliest. 

Orange, De, see Abricotee. 

Ord's Teach, — Leaves with reniform glands, flowers 
small, flesh melting, colour yellowish green and red, 
size large, quality indifi'erent, season beginning and 
middle of September ; allied to the Chancellor, but 
not so good. 

Orleans, Dwarf, see^Pecher Nain. 

Orleans, Nainde, see Pecher Nain. 

Fadleys Early Vurple, see Grosse Mignonne. 

Favie de Fompone (Pavie de Pompone Grosse, 
Monstrous Pavie of Pompone, Gros Perseque Rouge, 
Gros Melecoton, Pavie Monstrueux, Pavie Rouge de 
Pompone, Pavie Rouge, Pavie Canui). — Leaves cre- 
nate, with reniform glands, flowers large, edges crum- 
pled, flesh clingstone, colour yellow and darkish red, 
size large, quality indifi'erent, season middle and end of 
October ; will not ripen except in a warm season and 
good situation. 

Favie de Jalagnier, 

Favie Jaune, 



37 



Peche-Jaune, see Alberge Jaune, and Rosana. 

Peche Royale, see Late Admirable. 

Peen To, see Flat Peach of China. 

Be Perse, see Peche d' Ispahan. 

Persique (Perseque, Gros Perseque, Perseque Al- 
longee). — Leaves with reniform glands, flowers small, 
flesh clingstone, colour yellow and red, size large, qua- 
lity indifferent, season October. Requires a warm 
soil and situation. 

Perseque Rouge Gros, see Pavie de Pompone. 

Pine Apple, see Kennedy's Lemon Clingstone. 

Pine Apple, Large Yellow, see ib. 

Pine Apple Clingstone, see ib. 

Pound, see Morrisania Pound. 
Portugal (Alberge of some). — Leaves crenate, with 
reniform glands, flowers small, flesh clingstone, co- 
lour pale yellow and red, size large, quality indiffer- 
ent, season end of September and beginning of Octo- 
ber. A white-fleshed Late Clingstone. 

Port Royal, — Leaves serrated, glandless, flowers 
large. 

Pot Peach, see Pecher Nain. 

Pourpree, Grosse. 

Pourpree, see Late Chevreuse, 

Pourpree Hative (Pourpree Hative a Grandes 
Fleurs, Early Avant of some, Avant Rouge of some). 
— Leaves crenate, with reniform glands, flowers 
bright rose and large, flesh melting, colour pale yellow 
and red, middle-sized, quality first-rate, season middle 
and end of August. 

Pourpree Hative (of some), see Grosse Mignonne. 

Pourpree Hative, Veritable (Du Vin, Early Purple, 
True Early Purple). — Leaves with globose glands, 
flowers large. Probably nothing different from the 
Grosse Mignonne. 

La Pourpree (Pourpree Tardive of the French.) 

Pourpree de Normandie, see Grosse Mignonne. 



38 



Pourpree Tardive ^ see Late Purple. 

President, — Leaves crenate, with globose glands, 
flowers deep red and small, flesh melting, coiour pale 
yellowish green and red, size large, quality indifterent, 
season middle and end of September. Inferior to the 
late Admirable. An American peach, requiring a S. 
wall. 

Purple Hative (of some), see Grosse Mignonne. 

Ramhouillet (Eumbullion) . — Leaves crenate, flow- 
ers large, fruit middle-sized, flesh bright yellow, 
melting, quality good, ripe mid-September. 

Rare Ripe, Early Yellow (Yellow Rare Ripe). — 
Leaves with reniform glands, flowers small, flesh 
melting, colour yellow and red, season end of August, 
flesh yellow. 

Rare Ripe, White Luscious, — Leaves with reniform 
glands, flowers small, flesh melting, colour pale green 
and red, middle-sized, quality indifferent, season mid- 
dle of September. 

Ricketfs,see Twyford. 

Ronde de Vallahreques, 

Rosanna (Petite Rosanne, illberge Jaune, Peche- 
Jaune, Saint Laurent Jaune). — Leaves crenate, with 
reniform glands, flowers pale red and small, flesh melt- 
ing, colour yellow and darkish red, middle-sized, quality 
indifi'erent, season mid- September, flesh yellow, bears 
as a standard in a good season and situation. 

Rouge, Paysanne, see Madeleine de Courson. 

Royal, see Late Admirable. 

La Roy ale, see Late Admirable and Grosse Mig- 
nonne. 

Royal Charlotte (Early Purple of Kew, Madeleine 
Rouge Tardive, Madeleine Rouge a Moyennes Fleurs, 
Madeleine a Petites Fleurs, Lord Nelson's, New 
Royal Charlotte, Grim wood's Royal Charlotte, Lord 
Fauconberg's, Lord Fauconberg's Mignonne). — 
Leaves doubly serrated, glandless, flowers smallandpale 



39 



blush, flesh melting, colour palish green and darkish 
red, size large, quality first-rate, season beginning of 
September. An excellent sort, allied to the follow- 
ing ; but distinguishable from it, as well as from 
other varieties, by its deeply and coarsely serrated 
leaves. Raised by R. Lowe, a nurseryman at Hamp- 
ton Wick, in 1/60. 

Royal George (Millet's Mignonne, Red Magdalen, 
French Chancellor of some, Madeleine Rouge a Petites 
Fleurs, Lockyer's Mignonne, Griffin's Mignonne, Early 
Royal George, Early Bourdine of some. Double 
Swalsh of some. Superb). — Leaves serrated, glandless, 
flowers small, flesh melting, colour palish green and 
whitish red, season end of August and beginning of 
September. Excellent flavour, forces and bears well, 
but subject to mildew, as varieties with serrated leaves 
generally are. 

Royal George, French, see Bellegarde. 

Royal George, Grimwood'' s, see Grosse Mignonne. 

Royal George, GrimwoocT s Neiv, see ib, 

Rogal George, Mignonne (New Royal George Mig- 
nonne). — Leaves serrated, glandless ; flowers dark 
red and small, flesh melting, colour palish yellow and 
red, season end of August and beginning of Septem- 
ber ; similar to Royal George. Raised by a friend of 
Mr. Ronald's, of Tooting, early in this century. 

Royal George, Smooth-leaved, see Bellegarde. 

Royal Kensington, see Grosse Mignonne. 

Royal Sovereign, see ih. 

Rumbullion, see Rambouillet. 

Sachamoonah, see Mammoth. 
Saint Laurent Jaune, see Rosanna. 
Saint Fagus. 

Sandalie Hermaphrodite, see Abricotee. 
Sanguinole (Bloody, Sanguine or Blood, Betterave, 
Druselle). — Colour purple and red externally, that of 



40 

flesh like a beet. Used for preserves, as are also the 

other varieties of Sanguinole. 

Sanguhiole a Chair Adherente, — Leaves with reni- 
form glands, flowers large, flesh clingstone, colour 
darkish red, middle- sized, season end of October. 

Sanguinole, Melting, — Leaves with reniform glands, 
flowers large, flesh melting, size large, quality indif- 
ferent, season end of September and beginning of 
October. 

Sanguhiole, Pitmaston. — Leaves with reniform 
glands, flowers large, flesh melting, colour dark red, 
size small, season end of September. 

Scarlet A7ine, — Leaves serrated, glandless, flowers 
large. 

Serrated, see Emperor of Russia. 

South American, see Braddick's South American. 

De Sernach, — Leaves with reniform glands, flowers 
large, flesh melting, colour pale yellow and red, size 
large, season end of September. 

Spring-Grove. — Leaves crenate, with globose glands, 
flowers pale blush and large, flesh melting, colour 
pale green and red, middle-sized, quality first-rate, 
season end of August and beginning of September ; 
resembles the Acton Scot. Raised by Mr. Knight 
from Neill's Early Purple, by the pollen of the Red 
Nutmeg. 

Spring-Grove, Persian, — Leaves serrated, gland- 
less, flowers large, flesh melting, colour palish green 
and yellow and red, middle-sized, quality indifferent, 
season beginning of September. 

Sulhamstead. — Leaves deeply serrated, glandless, 
flowers large, flesh melting, colour pale green and 
red, size large, quality first-rate, season end of Au- 
gust ; very like the Noblesse. Raised at Mrs. 
Thoyte's, Sulhamstead House, near Reading, n 1815. 

Superb, see Royal George. 

Superb Royal, see Grosse Mignonne. 



41 



SwainsorCs, see Swainson's Black. 
Swalch, see Double Swalsh. 
Swahe or Swolze, see ib. 

Sweetwater (Early Sweetwater). — Leaves serrated, 
glandless, flowers large, flesh melting, colour pale 
green and red, middle-sized, quality indifferent, season 
end of August, 

Teint-doucc, 

Teton de Venus, see Late Admirable. 

Tonbridge, — Leaves with globose glands, flowers 
small, flesh clingstone, colour yellow and darkish red, 
middle-sized, quality indifferent, season end of Sep- 
tember. 

Transparent, see Grosse Mignonne. 

Transparente Ronde. 

Troyesy Peche de, see Petite Mignonne. 

Twyford (Holmes's, Rickett's). — Leaves serrated, 
glandless, flowers large, flesh melting, colour pale 
green and red, size large, quality first-rate, season be- 
ginning of September ; probably a seedling from 
Noblesse, which it very closely resembles. 

Unique, see Emperor of Russia. 

Vanguard, see Noblesse. 

Velontee de Merlet, see ib, 

Velontee Tardive, see Nivette. 

Vin, Du, see Veritable Pourpree Hative. 

Vineuse, see Grosse Mignonne. 

Vineuse de Fromentin, see ib, 

Violette Hative, {of the English,) see Bellegarde. 

Violette Hative, French, see ib. 

Violette Hative Grosse, see ib. 

Washington Clingstone. — Leaves with reniform 
glands, flowers small, flesh clingstone, colour palish 
yellow and green and red, middle-sized, quality bad, 
season middle of September. 

Wellington, 



42 



White Blossomedy see White Blossomed Incompar- 
able. 

Williams's Early Purple (Williams's Seedling). — 
Leaves serrated, glandless, flowers small, flesh melt- 
ing, colour palish green and darkish red, size large, 
quality first-rate, season end of August. Scarcely 
different from Royal Charlotte. 

Withams Seedling, — Leaves serrated, glandless, 
flowers large. 

SELECTIONS. 

For Pot Cidture and Forcing in general. — Grosse 
Mignonne, Noblesse, Royal George, and Bellegarde. 

For Walls in Scottish Highlands, — Barrington, 
Bellegarde, Bourdine, Chancellor, Grosse Mignonne, 
Malta, Noblesse, Yellow Alberge. 

For Walls in N, of England and S. of Scotland, — 
In addition to the foregoing, Catherine, Ford's Seed- 
ling, Late Admirable, Royal George, Smith's New- 
ington. 

For Walls in S. and Midland E^igland, — In addi- 
tion to the above, Early Anne and Madeline de Cour- 
son. 

For Standards. — Rosanna and Yellow Alberge. 

The best Varieties are Royal George, Bellegarde, 
Noblesse, Chancellor, Late xldmirable, Catherine, 
Grosse Mignonne, Royal Charlotte and Barrington. 



CHARACTERISTICS OF EXCELLENCE. 

In England, the melting peaches, the flesh of which 
freely leave their stones, are much preferred ; but in 
France, the Pavies or Clingstones, of which the flesh 



43 



is closely adherent to the stone, are much more es- 
teemed. This is not mere caprice, for the climate of 
France produces the Pavies in greater perfection than 
does that of our country. 

Whether melting or chngstone, to entitle it to rank 
as a first-class fruit, the skin should be thin, of a deep 
or bright red colour next the sun, and of a yellowish 
cast next the wall. The flesh should be very thick, 
firm, of a yellowish colour, full of juice, which should 
be high-fiavoured ; and the stone small. 



MODES OF PROPAGATION. 

The peach may be increased by seed, layers, bud- 
ding, and grafting. 

By Seed, — By this mode only varieties can be 
raised, as the seedlings never resemble their parent, 
but for the most part differ from it very widely. 

Plant the stones in October or November, three 
inches deep, in a pot eight inches diameter^ filled with 
light turfy soil from a rich meadow, and plunge the 
pot in the earth of a south border, sheltering in win- 
ter with htter or a frame. Move them into a vinery, 
when forcing commences, in February. The plants 
will be up in March, and must be kept under glass 
to the end of the year. Allow as many laterals to 
remain as can have their leaves fully exposed to the 
light, and shorten them, whilst very young, to the 



44 



fourtli or fifth leaf. Destroy the buds in the axillae 
of these leaves as they appear. The laterals, near 
the top of the plant, when about seven feet high, 
must be shortened; but the buds are not to be 
touched. Change the pots three times during the 
summer, adding fresh turf each time. The plant will 
probably form blossom buds the same autumn, and 
these may be at once used for propagating the variety. 
— {KnighVs Papers.) 

Hybridizing may be practised very successfully 
with the peach, by removing the stamens from the 
flowers of the female parent, and applying to their 
stigmas, by the aid of a camel' s-hair pencil, pollen 
from the stamens of that which is wished to be the 
male parent. The Acton Scot and Spring Grove were 
thus obtained, the latter having for its male parent 
the Large French Mignon, and for its female parent 
the Small Red Nutmeg. The female parents were 
dwarfs grown in large pots ; they were in vigorous 
health when impregnated, and only three peaches 
allowed to ripen on each tree. Each stone produced 
a difl'erent variety, of which the two above named 
were the best. In the above cross-breeding the prin- 
ciple was kept in sight, that the most excellent off- 
spring is engendered between parents remotely related 
to each other. 

Layers, — Mr. Knight states that peach and necta- 
rine trees, particularly of those varieties which have 



45 



been recently obtained from seed, may be propagated 
readily by layers either of the summer or older wood, 
and even from cuttings, without artificial heat ; for 
such strike root freely. (Knights Papers, 274.) 

The layer, if the branch be not convenient for peg- 
ging down, may be obtained by cireumposition ; that 
is, by passing it through the hole in the bottom of a 
small garden-pot, and filling this with light rich mould. 
This must be kept constantly moist ; and the pot and 
branch kept quite steady by tying to a firm stake. 
In any case the rooting is facilitated by cutting away 
a circle of bark just below the bud from whence the 
roots are wished to be emitted, and the branch should 
be layered at the close of July or very early in Au- 
gust. 

Grafting, — Although we prefer budding to this 
mode of increasing the number of any desired variety, 
yet grafting is sometimes necessary. We shall take 
advantage of some useful directions relative to the 
practice from the pen of Mr. D. Cameron, gardener 
to Sir G. Cockburn, at Highbeach, Essex. The ad- 
vice he gives concerning the stocks is also judicious 
and consonant with other directions we shall hereafter 
offer. He remarks that every gardener must have 
observed that the vigorous shoot made by the bud the 
first year, when cut down the second year to within 
six or eight inches of the stock, receives a severe 
check, and is very liable to disease. It frequently 



46 



happens that the future tree is spoiled in appearance 
by the weakness or unequal vigour of the side shoots, 
and partial decay of these, and of that part of the 
main stem which is above the stock. But, even under 
the most favourable circumstances, this mode of rais- 
ing peach trees never produces handsome plants till 
the third year, and they seldom bear fruit till the 
fourth or fifth year. 

As a quicker and better mode of raising trees of 
this kind, sow in autumn kernels of peaches, necta- 
rines, or apricots, under the walls where they are to 
remain. They will make a vigorous shoot the fol- 
lowing spring, and may either be budded in the Au- 
gust of the same year, or grafted the March of the 
year following. Grafting is the mode Mr. Cameron 
prefers, and the scion should have a quarter of an 
inch of two-years-old wood at its lower extremity. 
Scions so taken off succeed better than those taken 
indifferently from any part of the young wood. Cut 
the stock with a dovetail notch for the scion to rest 
on, and tie it on in the usual manner. Remove the 
buds of the scion in back and front, leaving two on 
each side and a leader ; when these have grown six 
or eight inches, pinch off the extremities with the 
finger and thumb, by which means each shoot will 
throw out two others, and thus produce in autumn a 
fan- shaped tree, with ten branches. Generally they 
will bear two or three fruit the second year from the 



47 



graft, and a proportionably greater number the third 
year. The flavour of the fruit is superior to that 
from trees grafted on plum-stocks. 

If budding be preferred to grafting, the shoot pro- 
duced by the bud should be pinched after it has grown 
six or eight inches, and only five buds allowed to 
push ; the five shoots produced by these buds should 
themselves be shortened to five or six inches, and dis- 
budded as they push, so as to produce a fan of ten 
shoots, as in the case of the grafted tree. If the 
wood so produced is properly ripened, it will hardly 
fail to produce blossoms the following year. {Gard, 
Mag. iii. 149.) 

We highly approve of Mr. Cameron's remarks in 
the main, although we would prefer thus preparing 
the plants in the kitchen garden in a temporary 
situation, and removing them to their permanent sta- 
tion at the close of the second or third year. Our 
objections to this portion of the plan are, that the 
tree would form tap-roots, or at least roots inclined 
to ramble a considerable depth : they should not, 
moreover, be allowed to occupy principal stations 
whilst many temporary ones can be found, and which 
will equally suffice. Frequent transplanting whilst 
young, we hold to be the only legitimate procedure by 
which to obtain abundance of fibrous surface roots : 
these being obtained, well-ripened wood will follow as 
a matter of course. 



48 



The mode of stopping pursued by Mr. Campbell 
is judicious indeed ; and could our nurserymen be 
persuaded to adopt a similar plan, it would be of im- 
mense benefit to the purchaser. In the nurseries, 
the peach and nectarine are propagated by budding 
in J uly. The head of the stock is cut off in the next 
February, and the gross stock of course puts forth a 
shoot strong enough for a whip handle. This, in- 
stead of being pinched off when about six or eight 
inches long, is suffered to ramble some five or six feet, 
in order to produce a plant of a specious character, 
termed a strong maiden.'^ Who can wonder that 
the large wounds which must occur in thus heading 
back should have a continual tendency to gum ? In- 
deed, we have no hesitation in saying, that the seeds 
of premature decay are deposited at this very period ; 
the e\il being greater in proportion to the gross and 
showy character of the maiden plant. 

A great objection to grafting is its being more 
uncertain than budding, owing to the excessive flow 
of sap or gum from the wound. Dr. Page, of Al- 
bany, in the United States, has obviated this by his 
mode of treatment. He says that the peach tree is 
of more rapid growth than any of the other x\raerican 
orchard trees, and frequently, in congenial soils, the 
first year from the seed, attains the height of six 
feet, with stems from one inch to one inch and a half 
diameter. The circulation, of course, must be very 



49 



active, and the sudden check from heading down 
such a tree, will in many cases destroy it. But should 
it live, the roots continuing in a state of activity, the 
scion is overflowing, as it were, by the sap ; that is, 
the sap flows so fast from the wounds, as to prevent 
the process of granulation, by which the scion is 
united to the stock. To graduate, then, the supply 
of sap to the wants of the scion, is the primary 
object; and the measures necessary to secure this 
condition are just those which tend to preserve the 
life of the stock after heading dovm. In the middle 
of July, Dr. Page selected the scions from thirty 
trees, with four or five eyes, taking care to choose 
those which contained leaf-buds. The stocks chosen 
were moderately-growing instead of thrifty stocks, 
and were trees of the growth of that season from the 
seed. Before heading down, he passed a long sharp 
knife down entirely round the tree, and severed all 
the lateral roots at the distance of three or four inches 
from the trunk, according to its growth. This done, 
the trees were headed down at a point where the 
stem was just the size of the scion, or a little larger, 
as the scions were inserted a little on one side of the 
pith. The insertions were made in the ordinary way 
of cleft-grafting. The scions were then secured by a 
narrow strip of sheet lead, wound spirally over the 
whole length of the cleft, and a small ball of grafting 
clay put over the whole. Every scion inserted in 

E 



50 



this way grew off finely. When heading down the 
stocks, he took care in every case to leave either one 
or two small shoots, some leaves, or several nascent 
buds, in order to continue all the functions of the 
tree until union had taken place between the scion 
and the stock. As soon as the buds of the scion 
began to put forth, all below upon the stock were 
pruned off. When the scions were taken from the 
trees, the leaves were all removed as in budding, 
leaving only a small portion of the footstalk. The 
clay and ligatures were removed in the autumn, when 
vegetation had ceased, and the wounds were all well 
closed. {Albany Cultivator.) 

Budding. — Much of the future success of any tree 
depends upon the judicious choice of the bud from 
which it is raised. It should be taken from a healthy 
tree, that for some years has proved itself a good 
bearer of well-flavoured fruit. Do not take the bud 
from one of the most gross-growing shoots, but from 
one the wood of which is well ripened, and its buds 
close together. From these select the largest and 
plumpest. Such buds will not make very strong 
shoots the first year or two, but they will make healthy 
and good bearing trees. Bud the peach in the even- 
ing, or during cloudy weather, and in J uly or August ; 
though we shall see presently that budding may be 
performed successfully in October and even November. 

We would advise that the buds be selected from 



51 



towards the extremities of the main shoots ; such 
will be found in general sound and of a fruitful ten- 
dency, although they may appear of a somewhat 
robust character. 

It is a common practice to insert one bud only in 
each stock, in its side, and about six inches above the 
soil. There will be no harm, however, in inserting 
two; for an extra chance will be hereby secured. 
Moreover, in pursuance of the course recommended 
by Mr. Cameron, as previously quoted, the two buds 
opposite to each other being successful, will (if 
pinched or stopped according to his practice) produce 
two or three shoots each wherewith to form the prin- 
cipal arms of the future tree. By this mode, w^e 
confess, the centre of the tree for a season will appear 
unfurnished. We, however, prefer furnishing the 
centre of the peach from shoots of a secondary cha- 
racter, which, if the tree be healthy, will readily fill 
the centre from the side limbs or shoots. 

After the budded trees have ripened their first 
year's shoots, they may be planted, either where they 
are to remain, or be trained in the nursery for two or 
more years until in a bearing state. Whichever plan 
is pursued, the first shoot, if it has grown unstopped, 
must be headed down in the March following, to pro- 
duce lateral shoots, and a leader, to begin the fan-form 
training of the head, or according to any other mode 
that will be detailed in the sub-section ^^Training," 
E 2 



52 



Choice of Stocks, — We prefer for all situations 
peach-stocks raised from stones sown either where 
the plants they produce may remain until after they 
are hudded and had their first training ; or, which is 
better, sown beneath the wall against which the buds 
they have been innoculated with have their branches 
trained. 

The experiments of Mr. "W. Anderson, in the Bo- 
tanical Garden at Chelsea {Gard, Mag, i. 384), and 
others of which we have a record, shew that the peach 
budded on an almond-stock is short-lived. 

The Damask plum and the Greengage are often 
used as stocks for the peach, but we have found that, 
on an average, the trees are neither so healthy nor so 
fruitful as others budded on peach-stocks. 

In Scotland, where the severity of the climate al- 
most precludes any hope of cultivating the peach tree 
out of doors with regular success, Mr. M'Murtrie, 
gardener at Shuckborough Gardens, recommends, as 
the apricot succeeds very well in some situations, a 
few peach-buds to be inserted into those trees. In 
1824, he inserted a quantity of buds, which took 
readily, and the next season made fine strong healthy 
wood; and, in 1826 and 1827, they produced fruit 
far superior to that on the peach trees. {Caled, 
Hort. Mem. iv. 367.) 

We have already stated that we prefer the peach 
stock to any other, but there are some good authori- 



53 



ties who use other stocks, and vary these according 
to the soil on which the trees are grown. Thus the 
Montreuil orchardists, near Paris, so famous for their 
peaches, employ almond-stocks on soils sandy or 
chalky, and plum-stocks where the soil is clayey. 
Mr. Knight, we think, inclined to the use of almond- 
stocks for the nectarine ; and adds, as a warning, that 
as they do not transplant well, they should be grown 
in pots. 

Mr. J. Smith, gardener at Hopetown Gardens, 
N. B., has made the following observations upon this 
subject : — 

The adaptation of stocks to soils has not been suf- 
ficiently studied in this country. In France, the peach 
is budded on almonds in dry situations ; while such as 
are destined for heavy loams are inserted on plums. 
It may also be noticed, that the French seldom ven- 
ture peach trees on such clayey soils as we not unfre- 
quently do. 

Instead of budding the tree on the spot on which 
it is to grow, or transplanting it when, in technical 
phraseology, it is a maiden, that is one year old, we, 
in our impatience, have recourse to trees which have 
been trained in the nurseries. Such plants, by a 
rigorous application of the knife, are made to produce 
an abundance of showy wood, and, at the same time, 
are so circumscribed that they do not cover half as 
much wall as the French trees of the same age. The 



54 



vegetable energy, thus confined within a narrow space, 
is ready to burst forth in whatever irregular manner 
chance may determine. The principle members, 
which form the skeleton of the tree, are seldom suffi- 
ciently distinguished from the other branches. Taking 
their origin chiefly from the centre of the tree, they 
become too crowded, and they are further allowed to 
separate into an indefinite number of subdivisions. 
This defective arrangement, in general, and especially 
when combined with the foregoing circumstances, fails 
not to overthrow the equilibrium of the sap. 

Again, there is a want of distinction between the 
subordinate members and the bearing shoots. The 
latter too frequently pass into the former, and then, 
in the confusion which follows, amputation either of 
larger or smaller branches becomes necessary. This 
pernicious operation is quite indispensable in those 
methods of pruning recommended by Mr. Knight 
and others, in which reversing and bending of the 
bearing shoots are prominent features. {CaL Hort. 
Mem. iv. 155.) 

Although Mr. Knight inclined to almond-stocks 
for the nectarine, he prefered peach-stocks for the 
peach, and gives the following directions for their 
raising. Instead of sowing the stones in pots as di- 
rected when varieties are the object, sow them in the 
border three inches deep, twelve inches apart, and in 
rows two feet asunder. 



55 



The plants will spring up in April, and in August 
and September will be of proper age and size to be 
budded about two inches from the ground. The nur- 
seryman, therefore, will have the advantage of taking 
his buds from the trees whilst the fruit is upon them ; 
and he can, in consequence, easily guard against errors 
which much too frequently occur, and he may feel 
quite certain that none of his buds will break prema- 
turely. Buds may be inserted in the early part of 
October ; and Mr. Knight introduced some with per- 
fect success even in November. Late in the autumn 
he generally shortened the roots, which descend per- 
pendicularly into the soil, by introducing a spade into 
the ground on two sides of each plant, but without 
moving it, or further disturbing its roots. Thus 
managed the buds shoot very freely, and with proper 
attention to preserve their fibrous roots, and to pack 
them properly, they may be sent to the most distant 
part of the island without danger of their being killed 
by their removal. Older trees, possibly, cannot be 
removed without danger of their failing; but Mr. 
Knight transplanted a peach tree, in the autumn, of 
ten years old, which was growing upon its own roots, 
and was more than ten feet high ; and in the follow- 
ing spring, it emitted its blossoms as freely as those 
trees which had not been transplanted — its roots, how- 
ever, were well preserved, and its branches properly 
retrenched. {Knighfs FajperSy 274.) 



56 



We may observe, as to the choice of stocks, 
that the main art of peach and nectarine cultivation 
does not he here in quite so high a degree as some 
persons imagine. Not that all stocks are alike ; 
for much, very much, difference exists in this re- 
spect. It must be well known to many of our 
readers that peaches have been most frequently cul- 
tivated with the highest possible amount of success 
on the ordinary plum-stock ; and this merely by a 
proper adaptation of soils, together with extreme care 
in keeping down insects, and some other important 
points, of which more in their proper place. 

Although it may appear somewhat egotistical, we 
may perhaps be pardoned for mentioning that we 
carried the Knightian medal at the July show, at 
Chiswick, this year, against all competitors, by 
peaches from a Bellegarde, budded on an ordinary 
plum-stock. The tree, moreover, has only been 
planted two years, being moved from the open wall, 
where it covered an area of 100 feet at the period of 
removal. Five of the peaches exhibited weighed 
52f ozs., thus averaging nearly 11 ozs. each. We 
question whether this weight, for five together, has 
ever been exceeded. The stock, as before observed, 
is the ordinary plum-stock. 

It is the practice of the nurseries, we believe, to 
use w^hat is termed the Mussell plum-stock for this 
purpose, at least for the common English peaches. 



57 



These are grown, or at least used to be, in great 
quantities in the lower part of Surrey, in what are 
called stock nurseries," purposely for the trade. 
The finer French peaches, however, in our younger 
days, were worked on a stock of more delicate habits, 
known by the name of the pear-plum-stock. This 
stock was a substitute for twice working, which was 
in somewhat general practice about fifty or sixty 
years since. The course then pursued was to bud 
the common plum-stocks with some gross or robust 
kind of peach, as the Royal George, and then to bud 
the delicate kinds of French peaches on this stronger 
kind. 

"Whatever kind of stock be used, we would system- 
atically transplant them twice before they were bud- 
ded, and once afterwards. We hold that abundance 
of surface roots on undug borders are the best gua- 
rantee of permanent success. Indeed, we conceive 
the essential difference between the employment of 
common plum-stocks and those of the almond, or 
from the peach kernel, lies in the different character 
of the roots, together with the comparative ratio at 
which the ascending sap is furnished — the plum 
being more inclined to tap roots ; and unless some- 
what tamed by a preparatory course, liable to sur- 
charge the system of the tree with fluids. It should 
not be forgotten, moreover, that the deeper root of 
the plum creates a tendency to late growth in the 



58 



peach, which, we need scarcely say, is of a watery and 
immature character. We will offer more observations 
on this subject under the head " border-making/' 



SOIL AND MANURES. 

There are two most essential points to be attended 
to in the borders where the peach is grown ; so essen- 
tial, indeed, that, if not sufficiently provided for, the 
trees grown upon them will never be productive, for 
they will have gross ill-ripened shoots, and diseased, 
blistered leaves. The essential points alluded to are 
complete drainage, and avoiding the employment of 
rich animal and vegetable manures. 

The following directions embrace both a good system 
of drainage, and the preparation of a soil most suita- 
ble for this tree. 

Nine inches of flints, stones, or brickbats, with 
under- drains to carry off the water, will accomplish 
the drainage of a peach border ; on this lay 18 inches 
of mellow loam, of a turfy nature, from a dry healthy 
old pasture, without any manure, and the border is 
complete. This arrangement, like all others in good 
gardening, is without mystery, and when carried out, 
inexpensive in most places. One of the most impor- 
tant points in peach-growing is to get bearing-wood. 
The border has a great deal to do with this, for when 



59 



manure is liberally supplied to the border, or when 
the roots have a superabundance of moisture, caused 
by imperfect drainage, the shoots under such circum- 
stances are not of that quality which gardeners dis- 
tinguish as short well-ripened bearing-wood. {Gard, 
Chron. 1845, 512.) 

The most important affair is to select a good loam ; 
and although some of our continental neighbours 
seem to prefer a light soil, the majority of good Eng- 
lish peach-growers like a sound loam. The term 
sound loam is, we acknowledge, of a somewhat indefi- 
nite character, and it is not very easy to convey a just 
notion of what we mean by it. 

Loams differ much in colour as well as texture ; 
we do not, however, conceive that colour is of very 
great importance, although we must confess that we 
prefer a bright loam of a yellowish cast. We like it 
to be slightly adhesive, not however clayey. The 
more the clayey principle predominates, the shallower 
the border should be ; and, as a general principle, we 
advocate rather shallow borders ; two feet we think 
amply sufficient, especially in the northern counties. 
We have grown first-rate peaches and nectarines on 
borders not more than sixteen inches in depth, but 
then there was no cropping carried on, which could 
by any means interfere with the surface roots ; and 
top-dressing was resorted to, as indeed it must be in 
such cases during the heat of the summer. This 



60 



depth, theiij we would recommend especially for our 
northern counties ; for, after all, ripening the wood is 
the grand leading principle, without which all other 
appliances will be neutralised. Hot and dry summers 
are the exception, not the rule, in England ; and the 
above depth we think provides best for the average of 
seasons. 

It is comparatively easy to apply water when 
needed ; not so easy to remove it in soils of great 
depth and in rainy seasons. There is no great diffi- 
culty in applying three or four barrowsfull of manure 
as top-dressing, during unusually hot periods ; much 
difficulty, however, exists in checking a tendency to 
late and immature growths, when trees are planted 
in deep and rich soils — especially during a damp and 
dark summer, closed by a showery autumn. A good 
sound loam, therefore, little more than half a yard in 
depth, will, we think, best suit the majority of cases. 
As, however, trees are very differently circumstanced 
when planted inside the peach-house, we shall make 
our remarks more serviceable by detailing the style of 
border best adapted for the forcing-house, as also that 
for the out-doors wall. Hot walls will also require a 
separate notice, and we proceed to offer practical points 
on each respectively. 

Mode of Preparing Borders out of doors, — To de- 
termine on a proper level is the most important prin- 
ciple from which to start. If the ground is in a low 



61 



district, and naturally of an adhesive character, one 
half the Tolume of the border should be above the 
ordinary ground level. The most perfect drainage 
in such cases must precede all other operations ; with- 
out this the whole must ultimately prove a failure. 
In ordinary cases, and where no particular suspicion 
rests as to the retention of water, one bold main 
drain, communicating with the porous substratum 
(and placed one-half of its depth below the level of 
that body), will suffice. If, however, the ground is 
naturally damp, cross drains must be had recourse 
to ; their frequency corresponding with the amount 
of water to be drawn. In general, such cross drains 
may be placed about fifteen or twenty feet apart. 

Much has been written about impervious bottoms 
of concrete, &c. ; we, however, are decidedly opposed 
to them. They are, at the best, doubtful on the score 
of principle, and decidedly objectionable on the score 
of expense. They moreover serve to render a matter, 
perfectly sim.ple in itself, complicated ; and may serve 
to deter many persons from attempting the cultiva- 
tion of this luscious fruit, which is certainly within 
reach of all who can command a wall, and can bestow 
a little attention occasionally. 

The under-drains being established, the next thing is 
to place a considerable body of any broken, porous, and 
imperishable material over such drainage. Broken 
bricks, stones, or scoriaceous matter is the sort of 



62 



thing ; and this should, in ordinary cases, he laid at 
least eight inches deep ; in extraordinary cases of 
wetness, or in our more northern counties, the deeper 
the better. Such having been spread to a fair and 
even surface, means must be taken to prevent the 
soil from entering the surface. We find nothing su- 
perior to clean-riddled cinders, sweeping them into 
every crevice, and working them to a very even sur- 
face, over which a roller may be^finally passed. 

Our practice is to place a layer of thick turves im- 
mediately on this, with the grass side downwards. 
These turves should be from a very old pasture if pos- 
sible, and possess a vast amount of fibrous matter. 
Our loam being at hand, we proceed by throwing on 
alternately a layer of loam and a layer of fresh stable- 
door litter; introducing the latter in very thin por- 
tions, shaking it out with a fork. We also occasionally 
sprinkle in a few of the fallen oak or beech leaves 
recently raked from the Park ; our object being to 
keep the soil elastic for a long period, and rather to 
add organic matter than stimulating manures. 

These operations should always be performed dur- 
ing a dry period ; and those who intend doing full 
justice to a peach border, should have every thing in 
readiness by the end of August, in order to take choice 
of weather between that period and the planting time. 

No loams can ever be relied on if handled in a wet 
state ; such a proceeding will nullify the best laid 



63 



plans. We may here add, that we highly approve of 
a sprmkling of bones, crushed to what is termed in 
the market, half-inch bone/^ Such many be mixed 
with crushed charcoal, and introduced rather liberally; 
we would say, one part of the bone to three parts of 
the charcoal, and as much of the two as would cover 
the face of the border three inches in thickness. Where 
such is introduced, however, the border should be 
made three or four inches deeper. 

Mode of Preparing Borders in-doors, — We need 
say little on this head ; the principal difference will be 
in point of depth. Peaches and nectarines in-doors 
have to endure a greater amount of ground heat, as 
well as atmospheric, on the average ; a much greater 
demand therefore exists on the system of the tree. 
We also advise a more liberal application of manure ; 
and good stable manure, in a fresh state, may be intro- 
duced in the proportion of one part to six ; besides a 
small proportion of the stable litter, as recommended 
for the out-door borders. The loam, moreover, should, 
if possible, be somewhat sounder still ; avoiding, how- 
ever, every thing of a clayey character. We make 
our in-door borders a yard in depth, taking care that 
the bottom is rendered perfectly safe from the effects 
of stagnant waters. The bone and charcoal may be 
introduced here as in the out-door borders, and the 
filling-in accomplished in a similar way. 

Mode of Preparing Borders for Fined Walls.~ 



64 



Here again, as the trees will be subjected to a some- 
what greater amount of heat in the aggregate, we 
would make the border a little deeper than for ordi- 
nary walls. The whole of the process here, in fact, 
may be exactly intermediate between the course re- 
commended for the house border and that of the open 
wall. 

Before closing with the subject of border-making, 
it will be well to observe, that the more turf the loam 
contains the better ; and that from very old rest-land 
is by all means to be preferred. It may be dug or 
cut from two to six inches deep, according to the de- 
signs of the proprietor, and one rough chopping will 
suffice ; it must by no means be broken fine. Lumps 
of solid turf, in masses, four or five inches in thick- 
ness, should prevail through the whole mass. 

If a soil is a friable loam, but deficient in decom- 
posing organic matter, the best compost which can be 
employed is a mixture of bone-dust and decayed 
leaves, in the proportions of two parts of the latter to 
one of the former. 

AS A STANDARD. 

The Hardy Morton Peach was raised from a stone 
of a fruit which was gathered in the garden of J. 
Morton, Esq., Rehoboth, near Dublin. Throughout 
its growth in was exposed to all the vicissitudes of 
our climate, and was the hardiest variety we were ac- 



65 



quainted with. It was planted in an open border 
which ranges north-west and sonth-east, for the pur- 
pose of training it as an espaher, hoping that its ini- 
tiation to our cHmate would render its habits more 
suited to a productire growth than those which have 
been fostered in houses or against walls. The result 
realised those hopes ; its growth was too vigorous to 
bear the restraint of an espalier form, and therefore^ 
in preference to employing that usually prejudicial, 
and, at least, temporary remedy of over-luxuriance, 
reducing the number of the roots, the centre branch 
was trained as a standard, and the two side limbs as 
an espalier. It grew most luxuriantly, and the second 
year it bore thirty-five peaches, five of which were on 
the standard branch, and scarcely at all later in their 
ripening than those on the trained branches. The 
tree "stood on a declivity sloping to the south. 

Having left the house in the garden of which this 
tree was grown, it was neglected and died ; but we 
beUeve that buds were taken from it, and, if so, it will 
be found the hardiest of our varieties. The outer 
skin of the fruit was very unusually thick. 

The Rosanna, and probably some of our other 
early-ripening varieties, will ripen their fruit as stan- 
dards, if grown in a favourable situation, such as on a 
soil sloping to the south, or south-east, and sheltered 
from the other colder points of the compass, as well 
as from the westerly winds. 

F 



66 



If so planted on a well-drained soil, and allowed to 
grow unchecked, it would require little other pruning 
than removing such branches as incommoded others. 
We would remark, however, that, if an attempt be 
made to carrj out this mode of cultivation, the soil 
should be a fresh maiden loam, and by no means 
deep. In the northern counties we would also elevate 
the site of the tree a foot above the ordinary level, 
enclosing the soil by turves or by stones. Richness 
of soil would, in this case, never produce short-jointed 
wood, without obtaining which all the labour bestowed 
would be fruitless. Whatever mode of training might 
be adopted, the shoots should be kept thinly pruned, 
and liberally disbudded. 



WALL CULTURE. 

The Border for peach trees need not have more 
than a foot's depth of soil, nor be wider than six feet; 
but 18 inches deep and eight feet wide is the best 
allowance. Whatever be the dimensions, good drain- 
age, as urged in a previous section, is of absolute im- 
portance. 

Mr. A. Cramb, gardener at Hey wood House, Wilt- 
shire, is in favour of the smaller dimensions, observ- 



67 



ing that a border of six feet wide, and one foot deep, 
is sufficient to support trees luxuriantly. Those who 
grow peach trees in pots have an evidence of this 
from the small quantity of soil which is required to 
maintain them in vigour. When manure is wanted, 
it can be given in a liquid form, and in such quanti- 
ties as the cultivator may think proper. A breadth 
of border is preferable to a depth of soil. The roots 
in the former situation will ramify under the influence 
of solar heat, and the nutritious gases of the atmos- 
phere, which give flavour to the fruit and stability to 
the wood. As a covering for shallow borders, decayed 
tan is a very suitable material. It always presents a 
clean appearance, and is a great absorber of heat. 
{Gard. Journ, 1846, 60.) 

It ought to be kept in mind that if the border is 
very shallow no cropping must be permitted over the 
roots, or at least none that requires a spade. A very 
sound loam also should be used for making the border, 
or the trees will be liable to suffer in hot periods. 
Mr. Cramb's advice is very good on the whole : we 
do not, however, like the old tan, unless it is removed 
when getting much decayed. We would rather cover 
with rotten farm-yard manure, which is never too sti- 
mulating on the surface, providing nothing but sound 
loam has been used in making the border, and that 
the border is free from the lodgment of water. 

The drainage should be effected by draining tiles ; 
F 2 



68 



and we quite agree with Mr. Marnock in deprecating 
the practice of paving or concreting between the 
border-soil and the snbsoil. Wherever the bottom 
is so constructed as to resist the passage of mois- 
ture, either upwards or downwards, we think the 
surface, in hke manner, ought to be shielded from 
the falling rains. We had almost said that no- 
thing could be more unphilosophical than to lay 
the border earth on an impervious stone floor, 
which must of necessity retain every drop of rain 
water that falls upon it. It is true it may filter 
towards the front and escape ; but what an ex- 
cess of moisture there must continually be towards 
the lower part of the border ; certainly quite enough, 
for at least nine months in the year, to keep six or 
nine inches of the lower portion of the border com- 
pletely saturated with wet ; and more than enough 
to rot half the roots of the trees, which annually 
send their roots downwards. {Gard, Journ, 1846, 
501.) 

These remarks of Mr. Marnock are indeed most 
judicious, and the idea of making impervious bottoms 
cannot, in our opinion, be too much repudiated. It 
does, indeed, appear strange, that whilst the agricul- 
turist is so anxious to remove the hard pan from be- 
neath his soil, which exists in some localities, and 
w^hilst the benefits of a thorough aration by subsoiling 
or otherwise are generally recognised, that gardeners 



69 



should be found backing so disputable a point. It 
does, indeed, to us, appear a retrograde course ; for 
surely the roots may be kept up, and the passage of 
the water facilitated, without recourse to such expen- 
sive and doubtful processes. 

In establishing a peach border, in which, as before 
observed, draining is of paramount importance, pro- 
viding waters lodge, the character of both soil and 
subsoil must be taken into consideration. We have 
known situations where no drainage whatever is ne- 
cessary. Indeed, such is the case with the borders 
under our own management. Our trees are planted 
on platforms composed of broken bricks or stone, 
which reach about two yards from the centre of the 
tree each way. The subsoil beneath is of common 
red sand, several feet in depth, and quite dry. "We 
have grown first-rate peaches on such borders for 
nearly twenty years without a single drain. The 
majority of soils, however, require some drainage, and 
for this purpose we would recommend a deep and ca- 
pacious receiving drain along the front of the border, 
and parallel with the wall, and cross drains running 
rather diagonally into the main. The frequency of 
the latter must be regulated by the amount of suspi- 
cion as to wet. These drains must be well secured at 
the top, and should carry a superstratum of broken 
and imperishable material, from three to six inches 
thick at least, in order to secure the surface from the 



70 



percolations of the snperineumbent border. "We lay 
a layer of thick turves on this, merely sweeping some 
fine gravel or cinders in the interstices of the turves. 

Walls, — These must not be less than nine inches 
thick, otherwise they will cool so quickly as not to 
forward the ripening of the fruit and wood so rapidly 
as is desirable. They are quite as efficient in this 
respect, if not more so, w^hen built nine inches wide, 
but hollow. They should have a far projecting 
coping on the top, for this not only checks the radia- 
tion of heat from the wall, but is a protection from 
strong wind and heavy rains, which are especially 
liable to injure the blossoms. Moreover, they facili- 
tate the use of netting, &c., as will be more fully 
particularized in the section devoted to " Shelters." 

Another most important point is the quarter of the 
compass the wall should face. A south-east aspect 
is decidedly preferable to a south-west one for peaches. 
If, however, the border is not too wet, and if the trees 
are properly trained, they ought to succeed very well 
on a south-west aspect. The heavy rains to which 
they are then exposed are injurious when they occur in 
the blossoming season ; but if the border is sufficiently 
permeable, the rain, always comparatively warm from 
that quarter, is beneficial, and far preferable to artifi- 
cial watering. The vigour of shoots produced on this 
aspect is generally such as to require them to be 
trained in a direction nearly horizontal ; and when so 



71 



trained, an abundance of large fruit is generally the 
consequence ; but if allowed to grow upright, or 
nearly so, few or no fruit is produced. {Gard. Chron. 
1841, 689.) 

"We would here remark that, although in the south- 
ern counties the peach will ripen tolerably well on a 
south-east aspect, yet north of Birmingham, which 
is, we believe, near the centre of England, south as- 
pects must be had recourse to in order to ensure suc- 
cess. Indeed, when we get as far north as the county 
of Northumberland, and on the borders, fined walls 
are considered necessary. In the counties of Che- 
shire and Lancashire the peach is produced in pretty 
good perfection without the aid of flued walls, in most 
seasons. Several walls of this character are, however, 
to be found in those counties, and the superiority of 
such is manifest. 

It is well to have, even in some of the northern 
counties, a late kind or two to carry out the peach in 
long succession ; such as the Late Admirable amongst 
the peaches, and the Elruge or Newington amongst 
the nectarines. These, when successful, will produce 
fruit, which will be most acceptable, up to the middle 
of October. For such, a south-east aspect would be 
admirable. The soil, however, should not be deep, 
or the trees will run too much to wood, which will 
defeat the end in view. 

Flued Walls. — To advance the ripening of peaches 



72 



during ungenlal summers in any part of England, and 
to enable them to be ripened at all in the open air of 
some districts, flued walls are requisite. It must be 
borne in mind, however, that little firing should be 
applied in the early part of the season, the object 
being not to force forward the blossoming of the trees 
in spring, but to accelerate the ripening of the fruit 
and wood in autumn."^ The maturation of the wood 
may, in some cases, require the border to be thatched 
to throw off heavy rains, and lessen the flow of mois- 
ture to the shoots. Thorough draining, however, with 
the use of maiden loams unmanured, and rather shal- 
low planting, in general will be sufficient without this 
thatching. 

The following directions are given by Mr. W. 
Irving, gardener to Sir J. C. Swinburn, of Capheaton, 
N.B., and though the early use of heat is most suited 
for that northern climate, yet the other treatment 
may be adopted in any latitude. His flued walls are 
built in the common way, twelve feet high, with three 
turns, or levels, of flues, forty feet each in length, 
vrith a handsome trellis the height of the first flue, to 
save the trees from being scorched by the heat of the 
fire : this allows of more fire without hurting the 
trees. 

* As far north as Scotland, it is found desirable to hasten the 
blossom by lighting the fires earlier, and to continue them occa- 
sionally whilst the trees are blossoming. 



73 



The borders are composed of eighteen inches of the 
natural soil, which is strong clay, and eighteen inches 
of light soil from the fields, over a bottom of six inches 
of stones and lime-rubbish, all beat and smoothed to- 
gether; the manure employed is stable-dung, soot, 
and vegetable mould. As soon as a tree comes into 
a bearing state, it will bear in whatever position the 
branches are laid, providing they have proper space 
to ripen their wood, which they ought at all times to 
have. 

Fruning, — Unnail most of the tree, and cut out all 
the wood that is most worn out by last year's crop. 
Shorten such shoots as are wanted for new wood, and 
such as have not ripened their shoots to the point. 
All that have ripened their shoots to the point, lay in 
at full length, allowing them a proper distance, which 
adds greatly to the health and vigour of the tree, and 
likewise to the size and flavour of the fruit. Then 
nail them all neatly to the wall, with new shreds ; 
save all the old shreds, and boil them, and lay them 
aside for summer nailing. When all is finished, 
wash the trees and walls all over with the following 
wash : — 2 lbs. flowers of sulphur, 1 lb. soft-soap, 
and a few pints of soft-water. Boil the mixture slowly 
for some time, to promote the combination of the ma- 
terials ; take a tub (which should be kept for the 
purpose), fill it nearly full of soapsuds, and then put 
in a tolerable quantity of the boiled mixture, making 



74 



all milk-warm. Beginning at the one end of the wall, 
wash every part of the trees and wall by the aid of a 
syringe ; standing before the wall, so that the liquid 
may rebound on the back part of the tree, and enter the 
nail-holes and every crevice in the wall. It is proper to 
stir the liquid all the time of washing, to keep the 
sulphur mixed, otherwise it will settle to the bottom ; 
this wash becomes like a varnish on the trees. As 
soon as the sun shines on the trees and wall, the sul- 
phur smells so strong that it clears all the insects 
from the trees and wall ; the soap prevents the sul- 
phur from being washed off the trees readily. Wash 
frequently with soft-water, and sometimes with soap- 
suds, but not when the trees are tender, nor when the 
fruit is swelling, as it would taint the fruit. The 
winter is the best time for washing with soapsuds. 
When the flowers begin to open, put on a canvass 
shelter ; pull it up at night, and let it down all the 
day, except when the weather is wet or cold ; in such 
weather let the canvass remain all day upon the trees. 
Light fires every night in the evening, from the time 
the flower begins to open until the fruit is all stoned. 
Peaches and nectarines set best in a moderate heat, 
with plenty of fresh air. As soon as the weather is 
fine remove all the covering and fire-heat. Never 
again light a fire, unless at the time of the fruit ripen- 
ing, and then only when the weather is wet ; for the 
sun at that time is strong, and the fire-heat stops the 



75 



dew from falling on the fruit ; but moderate dew adds 
to the flavour of it. As soon as the fruit is all off, 
wash the trees with soapsuds, and if the wood is not 
ripened, light fires to ripen it. 

The canvass screens, employed by Mr. Irving, are 
made very neatly ; they are all joined together with a 
wall-plate at top, and another at bottom, and the 
rafters are mortised into them ; these rest on spikes 
of wood driven into the border, and the sheets are 
lashed to small beams at top and bottom. They are 
twenty feet long, draw up with pulleys, and are 
lashed together with small cord, which makes a hand- 
some cover, almost as good as glass. {Caled, Hort. 
Mem, iv. 446.) 

Mr. Irving' s remarks, although no doubt founded 
on practice, contain a few points which may tend to 
mislead, and we beg to qualify them with a few prac- 
tical remarks. In the first place, we would suggest, in 
the construction of flued walls, that the lower tier of 
flue be placed as low as possible, in order to warm 
the earth in contact with the roots. The utility of 
bottom-heat is becoming every day more manifest, 
and it is but a common-sense matter that the root be 
made to keep pace with the branches. In the second 
place, we would, if possible, dispense with the trellis. 
It is well known that a trellis is a waster of heat, or, 
in other words, by the author's own shewing, the use 
of the trellis permits a greater amount of fire-heat. 



76 



This is a thing to be avoided, for, in districts where 
coal is dear, it becomes a grave consideration how to 
economise in the consumption of this useful material. 
If the flue takes its first course along the bottom of 
the wall, the heat of course will be strongest there, 
but surely it would be better to place some non-con- 
ducting material in contact with that portion of the 
flue, which, if properly managed, would supersede the 
necessity of the trellis ; the best substance with 
which we are acquainted for this purpose is dry and 
new sawdust. An objection may here, however, be 
started, that this in the neighbourhood of the fire 
would be liable to ignite. Here, then, for a short 
space, some other substance might be used ; and 
pounded glass, the refuse of the glass-house, would 
perhaps answer the purpose. If we mistake not, this 
material was employed by Mr. Forrest some years 
since in the houses at Syon, where, we believe, the 
main piping from the steam apparatus, which had to 
travel some distance before branching into the respec- 
tive houses, was imbedded in pounded glass. The 
next point in Mr. Irving' s practice, to which we would 
allude, is the depth of soil he deems necessary. Three 
feet of soil may do in our southern counties, but will 
oftener produce failure than success in our more nor- 
thern ones. Half a yard of this depth, moreover, is 
composed of strong clay ! Surely this is not to be 
recommended for general practice. Although peach 



77 



trees may succeed for a few years in so tenacious a 
compost, we should much douht their permanency. 
"We would rather advise two feet maximum of a good 
sound yet mellow loam. 

Again, as to the wash recommended for dressing 
the trees after pruning and nailing. We approve of 
the articles used much, but we must be permitted to 
doubt the propriety of using so great an amount of 
soft soap. We would certainly advise persons about 
to experiment in this way to begin at one-half the 
strength as far as regards the soap ; the sulphur will 
do no harm. Moreover, Mr. Irving is rather indefinite 
as to the quantity of each article : A few pints of 
soft water" is liable to a varied construction. '^A tub 
filled nearly full of soapsuds," too. He should have 
stated the size. 

Choice of Plants. — This is of very considerable im- 
portance, for if the buds from which their heads were 
formed were not taken from well-ripened bearing 
wood, they will not be either very fruitful or long- 
lived. The stocks are also of first consideration, but 
this has been fully considered in the section on 
" Propagation." The following judicious obser- 
vations on the choice of plants are made by Mr. J. 
Haythorn, of Wollaton Gardens : — 

Maiden plants should always be chosen, as they 
may be trained in any way the purchaser pleases. 
The stock should have a clear stem, with but few 



78 



knots in it, or it will never swell out well ; and it 
ought to be budded from 3 feet to 3^ feet high, ac- 
cording to the height of the wall against which the 
tree is to be placed ; if budded lower, those branches 
near the ground become covered in the winter with 
wet and dirt, which causes the bark to crack and the 
branches to decay. If the tree is budded high enough 
the branches will radiate in every direction, and those 
that descend will be as fruitful as those that are horizon- 
tal or perpendicular; and no part of the wood will suffer 
excepting the ends of the descending branches, which 
may be shortened during the winter-pruning, and they 
will again fill the wall the following season. ( GareL 
Chron. 1841, 166.) 

We must here remark that we cannot conceive the 
plan adopted in the nurseries to be the best for obtain- 
ing long-lived trees. The buds, for the most part, are 
obtained from gross, young and watery shoots ; and 
this, generation after generation ; the object being to 
obtain showy trees, which generally sell the best. 
We would therefore advise, in the choice of trees from 
the nursery, not to be guided by mere strength, how- 
ever specious it may appear, but to select those which 
are high-coloured in the bark, short-jointed, and with 
an equal division of strength on each side of the tree ; 
preferring those which possess strong shoots, as the 
lower arms with a centre of rather subordinate strength. 
Not a single blemish should exist on any part of 



79 



the main branches or the stock. We should, never- 
theless, prefer good dwarfs to the half-standards of 
Mr. Hay thorn ; we certainly have seen such trees 
answer admirably, but we must question the compara- 
tive durability of down-trained branches in the peach. 

Planting, — If the plants are not budded on the 
stocks where they are to remain, which is the best 
mode, then select plants that have been budded three 
or four years, and remove them to their destination 
so soon as their leaves begin to fall at the end of Oc- 
tober. Plant them 16 feet apart at the least, with 
the roots nine inches below the surface, and carefully 
arranged, so as to cover the greatest space possible. 
Let the stem be full three inches from the bottom of 
the wall, and inclining towards it. Nail the branches 
to the wall, but do not prune them until the end of 
November, when a patch of white lead should be in- 
stantly applied to the cut, in order to keep out 
air and moisture. The neglect of this precaution 
from the earliest stages of the tree's growth is, wt 
are assured, the cause of the premature decay of 
the majority of peaches. This, we are persuaded, 
is the chief, if not the sole, cause of that discoloration 
in the wood which is often witnessed, and which is a 
sure precursor of a general breaking-up of the consti- 
tution. In nailing the branches of newly-planted 
trees, let very capacious shreds be used, for the soil, 
being newly-prepared, will settle considerably, and by 



80 



so doing, not unfreqnently leaves the tree suspended 
by its fastenings. 

Fruning, — We now come to the department of 
peach-culture on which there is some difference of 
opinion ; but we shall, as in other instances, consider, 
first, what is the object to be kept in view during the 
operation, and shall conclude by detailing the various 
modes suggested, with such observations as practice 
has suggested to us. 

As the peach bears principally on shoots one year 
old, the object for the gardener to aim at, is to obtain 
annually a sufficient supply of these regularly distri- 
buted over all the branches of each tree. To do this 
the sap must be uniformly supplied to them. The 
shoots must be of moderate size, short-jointed, and 
well-ripened ; which is never the case with very ro- 
bust, over-vigorous shoots. It is here, as is truly 
observed by Mr. J. Newington, that too many culti- 
vators of the peach commit a fatal error, for they 
endeavour to procure annually a great supply of long 
and strong wood, sufficiently large to make basket- 
rods, and from these they expect a crop ; but nothing 
can be more unnatural or erroneous than this system 
of pruning. Whoever has seen the peach trees in 
Malta or America, and noticed the very short and 
small wood from which such large peaches are pro- 
duced, would immediately contemn the above-noticed 
erroneous practice. Mr. Harrison, the eminent gar- 



81 



dener at "Wortley, succeeded well with a bad system 
of pruning, by shortening his shoots severely ; but his 
garden lay extremely exposed to the winds, which are 
beneficial in moderating the luxuriance of growth of 
plants, and such situations are not as liable to chilly 
damps and blights as low and more sheltered places. 
The man who has cultivated the peach tree for some 
time must have observed that the branches which 
have lost their leading buds never fail to set their fruit 
well, and often for a long time continue to swell such 
fruit faster than branches that are crowned with luxu- 
riant leading shoots. This may be accounted for by 
the ascending sap being carried forward by the luxu- 
riant growth above, and thus depriving or carrying 
away from the fruit its natural juice ; they then wither 
and fall off. {Gard. Mag. vi. 55.) 

In conformity with the principles we have noticed 
as just, we have the following general rules for prun- 
ing the peach, laid down by Mr. J. Craig, gardener 
to G. Cholmondley, Esq., of Howsham, Yorkshire. 

If it is taken for granted that the most suitable 
wood for producing fruit is short-jointed and stiff (say 
from one-eighth to three-sixteenths of an inch in 
diameter), it remains to be considered how a regular 
supply of that wood is to be obtained, so far as prun- 
ing, &c., may effect it, where the soil and situation 
are not favourable for it on trees that have been some 
time established. In this case, transplantation, where 

G 



82 



the trees are not too old, may be most judiciously re- 
sorted to for once ; not so much for the purpose of 
the immediate checking of the tree as for repairing 
the substratum, and reducing the strength of the 
border by adding sand, &c. Were it possible to avoid 
it, do not let one of the fibres be damaged, more than 
their being necessarily out of their element for a few 
hours would cause. This would check the tree suffi- 
ciently for one year ; and, in future, it would remain 
moderate, in consequence of the arrangements in the 
border, and the pruning to be adopted. Do not reckon 
upon a full crop of fruit the first year ; because, if 
the young branches were generally luxuriant, it is 
probable they would not set much fruit ; and, on any 
part that might be weak, do not allow any fruit to 
remain. In pruning, leave the branches thin, and 
shorten those which were vigorous to about two-thirds 
of their natural length, and those that were weak to 
one-third. In summer pruning, leave no more shoots 
than you calculate upon wanting in the ensuing spring, 
except where the branches were luxuriant ; there leave 
rather more, according to vigour. Where a young 
shoot is luxiuiant, stop it, and take ofi* the superabun- 
dant shoots before autumn ; by which, those shoots 
which are wanted would be more exposed to the in- 
fluence of the sun and air, and ripen better. As soon 
as the leaves begin to drop in the autumn, thin off 
the ripest of them, by sweeping lightly over the leaves 



83 



with a few sprigs of birch tied on a stick : this gives 
the wood a better opportunity of ripening. When 
the trees are in an unfavourable soil and situation, 
and have got too old to be transplantable, and make 
wood too grassy to be fruitful, lay in the young 
branches very thin. But, when it is considered that 
strong branches not bearing fruit so well as weak ones 
is not so much by reason of their vigour as of their 
immaturity, the discrepancy will vanish : for, by their 
being thin, and properly exposed to the action of the 
weather, they will ripen much better ; and thereby, 
although strong, a crop of fruit may be obtained by 
leaving them a good length at the next spring prun- 
ing, except where a supply of wood is wanted. By 
their being thin, a greater quantity of young shoots, 
for fruit-bearers in the following year, may be left at 
the disbudding season, which will be pretty moderate. 
When the tree has carried one or two crops of fruit 
the point is gained, for we rarely see a fruit-bearing 
tree too luxuriant. {Ibid. vi. 430.) 

We have rarely met with more judicious observa- 
tions than those of Mr. Craig. It is plain to those 
who know the habits and cultivation of the peach 
from long experience, that such remarks would only 
emanate from long and, we will venture to say, suc- 
cessful practice. 

Methods of Training. — The French. — No place in 
the world is more noted for the production of excel- 
G 2 



84 



lent peaches than Montreuil, in the vicinity of Paris. 
Some notice of this has heen taken in the first section 
of this volume ; but the success which attends the 
practice there adopted requires that it should be 
more particularly noticed. We give such notice more 
readily because we have it detailed by Mr. J. Smith, 
gardener at Hopetown House, accompanied by his 
excellent comments. 

The training of fruit-trees on walls, though an arti- 
ficial operation, is not the work of arbitrary caprice. 
There are some limits which cannot be passed with- 
out nullifying the purpose of all training, viz., the 
production of fruit. These arise from the peculiar 
growth of the tree, its duration, the mode in which 
the fruit is produced, and other circumstances con- 
nected with the theory of vegetation. Thus, in the 
peach, the tendency to fork, and the growth of the 
fruit, not on spurs, but on the young wood, has in- 
troduced the semi-stellular or fan-training ; at least in 
all cases in which its culture has been most skilfully 
practised. Other limits, such as the equilibrium of 
the sap, and the greatest possible facility of reproduc- 
ing fruit-branches, have restricted the French to cer- 
tain varieties of what has been called the open fan- 
training. All these modifications proceed upon a 
principle which is much insisted on, viz., the suppres- 
sion of the direct channel of the sap. Most fruit- 
trees, when left to themselves, form an upright stem 



85 



or trunk, which conveys the nutritive juices from the 
roots to the upper extremities. This tendency shews 
itself even on walls, and hence apple and pear-trees 
have been generally trained with central trunks. It 
is also observable in the peach-tree, although in a less 
degree ; and we consequently find Forsyth, and a few 
of his followers, training it with the upright stem, 
from which all the subordinate branches diverge at 
right angles. This the French condemn, alleging 
that the sap is wholly carried up to the superior 
members. They also proscribe the fan-training with 
a central limb (our common form), on the score of 
its being destructive of equilibrium. They therefore 
divide the tree into two equal portions, which they 
spread out diagonally, leaving the centre completely 
open. It does not seem very evident that this ar- 
rangement is indispensable to maintain the equili- 
brium ; but it certainly facilitates it greatly ; and, 
besides, it enables the cultivator to accommodate the 
tree to low walls, and, by preventing confusion and 
irregularity, contributes much to ease and freedom in 
the operations of pruning and training. 

1 . The form of training which is most generally 
adopted in France, is that of Montreuil. It appears 
to have been first invented about the beginning of 
last century ; but it was scarcely known before 1755, 
when it was brought into notice by the Abbe Roger 
Schabol, the most eminent French horticulturist of 



86 



his time. According to the principle already men- 
tioned, the tree is divided into two equal parts, in the 
form of the letter Y. In order to effect this, two, and 
sometimes four, principal branches (mother-branches) 
are established, which constitute, as it were, the ske- 
leton of the tree. The following sketch from the 
Bon Jardinier'^ of a tree three years trained, will give 
an idea of the arrangement. In the case of the two 
mother-branches, they are attached to the wall at an 
angle of 45 degs. ; but when there are four, the 
centre angle is somewhat less. Although recom- 




mended in most French works, it is not advisable to 
fix the branches at first in so low a position as they 
are ultimately to occupy, since the branches in the 
centre will invariably get the start of the others, as 
has been experienced in certain attempts at imitation 
in this country. The other branches are all situated 
on these principal limbs, and diverge from them at 
angles varying with the age and vigour of the tree. 



87 



Great care is taken to preserve them in due subor- 
dination to the leaders. The bearing shoots are 
treated pretty much as they are in this country. In 
the execution of the training, the operations above 
described are more or less applied, according to the 
intelligence of the cultivator. 

2. The next form which we shall notice, and which 
is at least ingenious, is that termed by Count Lelieur 
the form a la Bumoutier, from the name of its in- 
ventor. It is stated to be an improvement of the V 
of Montreuil, and to be distinguished from it and 
all others, in being less divaricated, — in having its 
principal members more strongly marked, — and by 
the entire renovation of the bearing shoots every year, 
which, being cut down almost to their insertion, give 
a pinnated appearance to the branches. The follow- 
ing account is gathered from the ^Tomone Francaise," 
a work of considerable merit, although it patronizes 
one mode of operation exclusively, and passes over all 
others in silence. As is commonly practised, the 
stock (of almond, or plum) is planted where the tree 
is destined to grow, and in the following summer two 
buds, nearly opposite to each other, are inserted. 
These produce two shoots, the future mother-branches, 
which are trained (Fig. 2) nearly in a vertical posi- 
tion, and ought to be as equal in strength as possible. 
At the first pruning they are cut down to about 15 
or 18 inches in length, and the buds, both before and 



88 



behind, are rubbed off. The result of the second 
years growth is the prolongation of the mother 
branches Fig. 3), and the addition of another 




Fig. 2. Fig. 3. 

branch (b) on the outside of each. The following 
summer affords a third pair (c) ; and at the end of 
that season the tree has the appearance indicated by 
Fig. 3. During the fourth or fifth year, each of 
the branches a, b, c, divides into two. Of these three, 
viz., a, by c, (Fig. 4) proceed in their original direc- 
tion, while the others (d, e, A), diverge, and become 
subordinate members. The next two seasons produce 




Fig. 4. 



89 



the remainder (/, I, m), which complete the deve- 
lopment of the tree. Every successive year brings 
the mother-shoots a little lower, till they are inclined 
at about an angle of 25 degs. The annexed figure is 
from a tree which, in nine years, covered a space of 
wall 42 feet long, and 8 feet high. 

The points of the leading shoots are shortened every 
year to such an extent as circumstances require. So 
much is symmetry studied, that Count Lelieur in- 
structs us to ensure the equality of both sides by 
admeasurement; and he assures us that this is always 
possible, if the tree has been properly managed. la 
order to produce this, however, the most scrupulous 
attention is given to regularity ; all the means of equal- 
izing the branches are called into exercise, and even 
the lateral twigs, and those portions of the shoots 
which are to be cut off in the pruning, are carefully 
arranged and manipulated. 

The pruning for fruit commences in the third year, 
and is performed with much exactness. As already 
noticed, the whole of the bearing-wood, with perhaps 
a few exceptions, is renewed every year. The lateral 
shoots which appear during summer at the ex- 
tremity of the leading branches, are cut back to a 
single eye, together with all other shoots which have 
no fruit-buds, and at the same time are feeble. 
When a shoot promises blossom, it is generally at 
some distance from the point of insertion into the 



90 



old wood, and the intermediate space is covered bv 
wood-buds. All the latter, therefore, which are be- 
tween the old wood, a, and the blossom, c (Fig. 5), ex- 




Fig. 5. 

cept the lowest, h, are carefully removed by dis- 
budding. This never fails to produce a shoot, the 
growth of which is favoured by destroying the useless 
spray above the blossoms, and pinching off the points 
of those which are necessary to perfect the fruit. 
This is termed the replacing bud. Barren shoots, 
when too vigorous to be cut down to their low- 
est eye, are treated exactly in the same manner. 
At the winter pruning, the branches which have 
borne fruit are cut down to the insertion of the re- 
placing shoots, which, in their turn, are disbudded, 
bear fruit, and are cut out like their predecessors. In 
cases where the blossom has failed in setting, or the 
fruit in stoning, when the shoot is too weak to ripen 
the fruit which are upon it, or when the crop is very 
early, this operation may be performed at any period 
in the course of the summer. It is then called return- 



91 



ing to the green shoot." Occasionally, a very promis- 
ing shoot which has already fruited is allowed to remain. 
The replacing shoot is cut back to its lowest eye ; or, 
if it is vigorous, and there is room, it is made in the 
usual way to produce a substitute. Tn either case, a 
new replacing shoot is obtained, to which the whole 
is invariably shortened at the end of the second 
year. The branch thus treated is styled the reserve 
branch. 

It is to be remarked, that the replacing shoot, and 
the branch of reserve, form a part of the Montreuil 
system of pruning for fruit, but less attention seems 
to be bestowed upon them, and the raprochement or 
cutting back is not so rigorously performed, for we 
find the fruit-branches passing into subordinate mem- 
bers, while, in the form we have just now described, 
they remain single and undivided. It is obvious that 
these operations might be applied to any system of 
training, even by those who would hesitate to adopt 
one of the French forms in all its details. It is but 
justice to observe, that a near approach to these ope- 
rations has been made by Harrison, in his excellent 
directions in this department of the culture of peaches. 

3. There is yet another variety of the Montreuil 
form, denominated a la Sieulle, The tree is likewise 
formed upon two mother branches, which, being se- 
lected in the first summer, are permanently fixed at 
the inclination of from 25 to 30 degs., leaving, con- 



92 



sequently, a very large angle in the centre. These 
leading branches are never shortened. Late in the 
first autumn all the buds are removed except three, one 
of which is terminal, the other two are at equal dis- 
tances on opposite sides of the shoot, the one on the 
outside being nearest the stem. The growth of the 
second summer lengthens the shoots in their original 
direction, and produces one from each of the reserved 
buds. At the beginning of the second winter, the 
leading shoots are again laid in at full length ; the 
side shoots are shortened about one-third ; and, as 
before, only three buds are allowed to remain. After 
the lapse of another year, the tree has assumed the 
following appearance (Fig. 6). Fig. 7 represents a side 




Fig. 6. Fig. 7. 



shoot, after being shortened and disbudded. The 
same process is continually repeated. The mother- 
branches grow on in a straight line, and those on the 
sides pass into subordinate members. This method 
proceeds upon the position, that fruit-trees are more 
weakened than strengthened by pruning. Sieulle was 
led to this conclusion by observing the effects of shears 



93 



in topiary work. There is, however, but little ana- 
logy between clipping and pruning ; and in old trees, 
where the two leading shoots bear no proportion to 
the others which are annually shortened, the principle 
is virtually given up. It must be admitted, how- 
ever, that the continual disbudding economises the 
force of the tree, by limiting the number of shoots, 
and preventing the appearance of those which grow 
only to be cut off. A considerable diminution of 
labour is also gained in the busy period of summer. 

Under this mode of pruning, the quantity of blos- 
som is necessarily small, since only three double 
flower-buds at most are ever left on one shoot. This, 
however, obviates the necessity of thinning the crop, 
and is said to increase the size, and consequently 
the flavour of the fruit. In the climate of France, 
it should seem that the gardener may calculate on 
the setting of any given flower. {Caled, Hort, Mem, 
iv. 144.) 

The eminent success which has been known to ac- 
company the cultivation of peaches in the neighbour- 
hood of Montreuii is a sufficient warrant for paying 
every attention to the details of their practice. We 
think that there is little or nothing to be objected to 
on the score of principle, but many points which the 
British gardener would do well to imitate. The 
mode of starting their trees we hold to be of consi- 
derable importance : their adopting a pair of shoots 



94 



thus V the foundation of the future fabric of the 
tree is an excellent step, and provides a sort of gua- 
rantee that the lower part of the wall shall be fur- 
nished. We hold it a principle that the centre of 
the tree should be composed of wood of a subordinate 
character. The modification of the strength of the 
tree may, however, be accomplished in the main by a 
judicious course of summer stopping, of which we 
will say more in its proper place. 

As for the form a la Dumoutier," and termed 
a la Siculle,'' w^e can only say that they contain no 
important principle which is not embodied in the 
Montreuil mode, but are much more complicated, 
which, in England, is certainly no recommendation. 
The demands upon the gardener of these days have 
increased to such an amount, through the introduc- 
tion of new plants, as also the carrying out the culti- 
vation of things in general, that those modes must be 
esteemed preferable which accomplish the end in view 
in the most simple manner. Much, we opine, of the 
complication which exists in these matters proceeds 
from the want of a knowledge of the immense power 
which lays in the cultivator's hands to weaken the 
tree or to equalise its strength by means of judicious 
disbudding and stopping. 

Fan-training, — This is the usual mode of training 
the peach in England, and the following directions 
for this mode of training are by an excellent practical 



95 



gardener : — The maiden plant is to be headed down 
to four eyes, placed in such a manner as to throw 
out two shoots on each side, as shewn in fig. 8. The 
following season the two uppermost shoots are to be 




Fig. 8. — Fan-training ; first Fig. Q. — Fan-training ; second stage, 
stage. 



headed down to three eyes, placed in such a manner 
as to throw out one leading shoot, and one shoot on 
each side ; the two lowermost shoots are to be headed 
down to two eyes, so as to throw out one leading 
shoot, and one shoot on the uppermost side, as shown 
in fig. 9. We have now five leading shoots on each 
side, well placed, to form our future tree. Each of 
these shoots must be placed in the exact position in 
which it is to remain ; and as it is these shoots which 
are to form the leading character of the future tree, 
none of them are to be shortened. The tree should 
by no means be suffered to bear fruit this year. 
Each shoot must now be suffered to produce, besides 
the leading shoot at the extremity, two other shoots 
on the uppermost side, one near to the bottom, and 
one about midway up the stem ; there must also be 



96 



one shoot on the undermost side, placed about mid- 
way between the other two. All the other shoots 
must be pinched olF in their infant state. The tree 
will then assume, at the end of the third year, the 
appearance shown in fig. 10. From this time it may 
be allowed to bear what crop of fruit the gardener 
thinks it able to carry ; in determining which he 
ought never to overrate the vigour of the tree. All 
of these shoots, except the leading ones, must at the 
proper season be shortened, but to what length, must 
be left entirely to the judgment of the gardener ; it, of 
course, depending upon the vigour of the tree. In 
shortening the shoot, care should be taken to cut 
back to a bud that will produce a shoot for the fol- 
lowing year. Cut close to the bud, so that the 
wound may heal the following season. The follow- 
ing season, each shoot at the extremities of the leading 
branches should produce, besides the leading shoot, 
one on the upper and two on the under part, more or 
less, according to the vigour of the tree ; whilst each 




Fig. 10. — Fan-training ; third stage 



97 



of the secondary branches should produce, besides the 
leading shoot, one other, placed near to the bottom ; 
for the grand art of pruning, in all systems to which 
this class of trees are subjected, consists in preserving 
a sufficient quantity of young wood at the bottom of 
the tree ; and on no account must the gardener cut 
clean away any shoots so placed without well consi- 
dering if they will be wanted, not only for the present 
but for the future good appearance of the tree. The 
quantity of young wood annually laid in must depend 
upon the vigour of the tree. It would be ridiculous 
to lay the sam.e quantity of wood into a weakly tree 
as into a tree full of vigour. The gardener here must 
use his own judgment. But if any of the leading 
shoots manifest a disposition to outstrip the others, a 
larger portion of young wood must be laid in, and a 
greater quantity of fruit than usual suffered to ripen 
on the over-vigorous branch ; at the same time, a 
smaller quantity of fruit than usual must be left to 




Fig, 11. — Fan-trained peach, in complete form. 
H 



98 



ripen on the weaker branch. This will tend to re- 
store the equilibrium better than any other method. 
Fig. 1 1 presents us with the figure of the tree in a 
more advanced state, well balanced, and well calcu- 
lated for an equal distribution of sap all over its sur- 
face. Whenever any of the lower shoots have ad- 
vanced so far as to incommode the others, they should 
be cut back to a yearling shoot : this will give them 
room, and keep the lower part of the tree in order. 
In nailing, care must be taken not to bruise any part 
of the shoot ; the wounds made by the knife heal 
quickly, but a bruise often proves incurable. Never 
let a nail gall any part of the tree : it will endanger 
the life of the branch. In nailing in the young 
shoots, to look workmanlike, dispose them as straight 
and as regularly as possible. Whatever system of 
training is pursued, the leading branches should be 
laid in in the exact position they are to remain ; for 
whenever a large branch is brought dowu to fill the 
lower part of the wall, the free ascent of the sap is 
obstructed by the extension of the upper and contrac- 
tion of the lower parts of the branch. It is thus 
robbed of part of its former vigour, whilst it seldom 
fails to throw out immediately behind the part most 
bent one or more vigorous shoots. To assist the 
young practitioner in laying in the leading branches 
of the tree, the following method may perhaps be ac- 
ceptable. Drive a nail into the wall, exactly where 



99 



the centre of the tree is to be ; then, with a string 
and chalk, describe a semicircle of any diameter, 
divide the quadrant into 90 degs. ; the lower branch 
will then take an elevation of about 1 2, the second of 
about 27h ^^-^ third about 43, the fourth 58^, and 
the fifth about 74^ degs. A nail should then be 
driven into each of these points, and the chalk rubbed 
off, (Gard. Mag. ii. 144.) 

One chief objection to fan-training, though not 
the only one, is that even with the most successfully 
applied skill, the centre of the tree is almost always too 
bare of young and fruitful shoots. To obviate this, 
several modes of training have been adopted, the best 
of which are the following :— 

Mi\ J, Seymour s Plan, — -Mr. J. Seymour carried 
his system very successfully into practice at Carlton, 
near Snaith, in Yorkshire, and is thus detailed by 
him : — 

A maiden plant must be cut down to three eyes ; 
and three shoots being produced, the two lower ones 
are left at full length, and the succeeding spring the 
centre shoot is again cut down to three eyes. At the 
time of disbudding the trees, all the buds on the 
lower side of the two horizontal branches are rubbed 
off, and buds are left on the upper side of the 
branches at a distance of from nine to twelve inches 
from each other. These are suffered to grow five or 
six inches, and are then stopped, but still suffering 
H 2 



100 



the leading shoot to extend itself. At the second 
spring-pruning, the centre shoot is again cut to three 
eyes ; or, if the tree be very vigorous, five eyes may 
be left ; two for each side, and a centre one for again 
furnishing the leading shoots. The leading shoots 
are laid in in the fan form, nine or ten inches from 
each other; the shoots on the leading branch are 
nailed to the wall in summer, but after the winter's 
pruning they are tied to the leading shoots with 
strands of matting ; thus keeping the space between 
the leading shoots clear, for the succeeding summer's 
shoots to be nailed in, where they get well ripened, 
and mature their buds for another crop. At the 
winter's pruning they are cut to three or four inches, 
according to their strength, as in fig. 12, a. The 




Fig. 12. 



maiden plant being headed down, the first winter will 
present two side shoots, and the upright shoot short- 
ened to three buds (5) ; the second year, at the end 
of summer, there will be four side shoots, and six or 
more laterals (c) ; in the following spring-pruning, 
the laterals (c^), which had been nailed to the wall, 
are loosened and tied to their main shoot (e), and the 



101 



upright shoot shortened to three buds (/), as before. 
At the end of the third summer the laterals will be 
doubled on the old wood, by one having sprung from 
the base of the shoot tied in fig. 13 {g), and another 
from its extremity (A) . In the pruning of the follow- 




Fig. 13. 

ing spring, the laterals of two years' growth, which 
had borne fruit, are cut off close, and the young late- 




Fig. 14. 



rals which had sprung from their base (i), fig. 1 4, are 
loosened from the wall, and tied down to succeed 
them ; the other laterals {k) are tied in, and the up- 
right shoots shortened (1) as before. 

Now, or before, the side shoots will have to be 
headed down once, or even twice, so as to increase 
their number, and regularly cover the wall. The ex- 
tent to which this practice is carried, will depend on 



102 



the height of the wall, and the distance of the trees 
from each other; the ultimate object being to produce 
a fan-form, as regular as possible, of permanent wood, 
with no young wood thereon besides what is produced 
along the spokes of the fan on the upper side, at about 
12 inches apart, and the prolongation of the shoots. 

In the course of the winter or spring of the third 
year shorten the side shoots to about 10 or 12 inches, 
as may be most convenient for wood buds, to get two 
principal leading shoots from each side shoot ; the 
first about three inches from the stem, as the bud 
may suit, and the other at the end of the shortened 
shoots, so as to double the leading shoots. The upright 
shoot is always cut at three of the lowest and most 
suitable buds, so as the stem may be kept as short as 
possible ; for, unless the side shoots are multiplied, the 
stem gets too high. If the sides shoots are strong 
the year after cutting down, they may be laid in their 
whole length ; but if weak, they m.ust be cut short 
to give them strength. Continue in this way to double 
the side shoots for two or three years, by which the 
tree will get strength, and then it will admit of the 
side shoots being shortened to about 14 inches. Cut 
for two or three years, so as to produce three shoots 
upon each side shoot, and so continue until there is a 
sufficient number of leading shoots to furnish the wall. 

After the tree has got into a bearing state, cut the 
lateral shoots to about eight or nine inches, taking 



103 



care to cut at a wood bud; and at the time of disbud- 
ding, leave the best situated buds, and those nearest 
the base, for the future years bearing. (Ibid, i. 129, 
and ii. 296.) 

Mr. Seymour's plan is a good one, and is very sys- 
timatic. We have seen it in practice, and can vouch 
for its being successful, but we much fear that few could 
bestow the attention necessary at the respective periods; 
and if once neglected through pressure of business, 
the whole falls into confusion. Otherwise it is a most 
ingenious mode, and becomes an ornament to a garden. 

Mr, W, Seymour s Plan, — This Mr. Seymour is 
gardener to H. Preston, Esq., of Morely, near York, 
and his system differs chiefly from that of his name- 
sake in not removing the summer laterals, but train- 
ing them in to be bearers, if not the next, the second 
year. His directions are as follow : — 

In the spring, as soon as the young shoots have 
grown to about an inch long, begin to disbud or 
thumb-prune them, by taking off all the young shoots 
where there is no blossom or fruit, except the lowest 
one upon the bearing branch, and that at the extreme 
point of it : this end shoot allow to grow about three 
inches, and then stop ; and break off all the buds by 
the fruit except four of their bottom leaves, so as to 
make a cover for the young fruit until the time of 
thinning, when those little spurs are to be taken away 
with the fruit that is not wanted, and the others re- 



104 



tained along with the fruit that is left. By so doing, 
we are only growing the shoot that we shall want next 
year for bearing fruit, which gives the trees an oppor- 
tunity of extending themselves, and making good 
wood. Instead of taking off the summer laterals or 
water-shoots (as they are sometimes called), as is 
generally done, lay them in at regular distances, the 
same as a natural spring shoot ; and, if they do not 
bear fruit the next summer, they will produce fine 
bearing-wood for a future year ; so that you have not 
to shorten those strong shoots, but lay them in their 
whole length for main or secondary leading branches. 
When the young shoots at the base of the fruit- 
bearing ones, or the extending part of the leading 
branches, have grown 4 or 5 inches, tie them down 
to the other branches as close as they will admit with- 
out breaking or pinching them, and keep them close 
to the wall through the summer. By this means 
they will get perfectly ripe and firm, and not be so 
luxuriant as when permitted to grow from the wall 
almost wild ; and the fruit must, of course, be larger 
when the wood is thin, than when it is permitted to 
grow twice as large as is necessary. There will be 
found, when disbudding, at the base of the shoots 
small buds that are not likely to make a shoot that 
season, but they must be retained, as they will pro- 
duce a shoot in a future year, and then bring your 
young wood nearer home. {Ibid. vi. 435.) 



105 



We have some doubts of so extensive a use of sum- 
mer laterals ; we use them occasionally, but we take 
care to stop them when a few eyes long, for their ten- 
dency, if suffered to proceed unrestrained, is to aug- 
ment the strength of the superior parts of the tree 
at the expense of the inferioi:. 

Mr, Mitchell's Plan,— Mr. Mitchell, of Sudbury 
Garden, aims at having fewer leading branches than 
are usually worked in by other gardeners, whereby, 
he considers, more organizable matter is devoted to 
the production of bearing- wood. The following di- 
rections are from his own pen : — Below is a sketch of 
a Royal George peach tree planted on the back wall 
of a peach-house seven years ago. The figure in 
question was taken after the operation of pruning in 
the seventh year was completed, at which time it ex- 
tended thirty-two feet in length. A correct idea will 
be obtained by referring to the woodcut, fig. 15 (a). 




Fig. 15. 

representing the leading branches, and (b) the fruit- 
bearing wood, which is regular and uniform in size 



106 



from the centre to the extremity of the tree. Nothing 
can be less difficult to manage, disbudding being at- 
tended to, and leaving the lowest bud on the wood 
(b), to produce a shoot for the following season ; also 
the terminal bud on the wood (5) is allowed to grow 
a few inches before stopping it. With a little atten- 
tion to tying, the work is finished till the winter 
pruning, which is done by cutting out the wood 
which produced the last crop, and tying in the young 
w^ood for the future crop. The merits of this system 
are the economising of organic matter in producing 
few leading branches, and an additional amount of 
fruit-bearing wood, with the leaves in a position fitted 
to take the greatest amount of advantage from the 
atmosphere and light. In proof of a vigorous consti- 
tution, the Horticultural Society of London awarded 
a medal to fruit gathered from this tree in 1842 and 
1843. {Gard. Journ, 1845, 217.) 

Trai7iing on Low Walls, — Mr. W. Seymour says. 




Fig. 16. 



107 



for training on low walls, take a maiden plant, and 
treat it as described in fig. 12, p. 100, so as to pro- 
duce a tree in this form, fig. 16, and when it has 
grown too large for the wall, it may very easily be 
changed in figure, in the manner of fig. 17. By 
these means the fan, curvilinear, and horizontal style 
will be combined ; and the gardener will be prepared, 
in case of an accident, because any of the branches 
produced from a a may be made leading ones. (Gard, 
Mag, vi. 436.) 




Fig. 17. 



Summer Pruning is of far more importance than 
that of the winter. 

In May and June, and occasionally in the succeed- 
ing months, it is necessary to regulate the shoots of 
the same year, and to prevent improper growths by 
disbudding. Pinch off fore-right buds or shoots ; and 
pinch off or cut out ill-placed, very weakly, spongy, 
and deformed shoots, retaining a plentiful supply of 



108 



good lateral shoots in all parts of the tree, and leaving 
a leader to each branch. 

Let them mostly be trained in at full length, all 
summer, about three inches asunder, for next year's 
bearers ; and divest them of any lateral twigs to pre- 
vent a thicket-like intricacy, and to promote a healthy 
fruitful growth in the shoots themselves. In the 
course of the summer regulation, if any partial vacancy 
occurs, or should a young tree under training want an 
additional supply of wood, shorten some conveniently 
placed strong shoot, in J une, to a few eyes, to furnish 
a supply of laterals the same season. 

This disbudding and regulation should be done by 
degrees. If many shoots and leaves are removed 
suddenly, it occasions gumming, and over-luxuriance 
in the shoots that remain. If shoots are very strong, 
train them as nearly perpendicular as is admissable, 
that there may be no check to the sap's return. 
Shoots less robust train horizontally. {JohnsorCs 
Diet, of Mod, Gardening,) 

Disbudding being one of the most important sum- 
mer operations, some explanation of its principles and 
the mode of operation may prove useful. It is neces- 
sary to bear in mind that on the quality of foliage 
with which a tree is furnished depends the increase 
in diameter of the stem and branches, the extension 
and increase of roots, and the production of fruit ; 
and yet, that no more leaves should be retained than 



109 



can be freely exposed to light. In the case of a 
healthy tree, one-half of the shoots and foliage it natu- 
rally produces could not be thus exposed when trained 
against a wall. If all the branches of a round-headed 
standard tree were disposed in a flattened or fan-like 
manner against a wall, they would be greatly over- 
crowded ; for instead of a surface equal to that of a 
sphere, the foliage would be reduced within a diame- 
trical section of the same, aifording a surface of only 
one quarter of that which they formerly had. Hence 
it is evident that a considerable reduction of shoots 
produced by wall-trees must be effected in some way 
or other. This is partly done by shortening and 




Fig. 18. 



no 



thinning at the winter pruning, and partly by the 
process of disbudding in summer. Let the accom- 
panying wood-cut represent part of a bearing-shoot ; 
the lowest bud is left because it is the lowest, and is, 
therefore, most eligible for training in" daring the 
season, in order to furnish, next spring, a similar 
bearing-shoot to that now represented, which will be 
cut back to the said lowest shoot. The second bud 
from the base is also left, for the sake of a fruit-blos- 
som which is connected with it. The shoots which 
were pushing at a, 5, and c, fig. 18, are removed, or 
disbudded. In removing the buds, care should be 
taken not to injure the bark of the shoot. The buds, 
a, 5, c, ought not to be all disbudded at the same 
time ; b, the fore-right one, should be first removed, 
and the others successively, at intervals of several days, 
in order not to check the circulation of sap by a too 
great privation of foliage at once. The terminal shoot 
is left because there is a blossom at its base. As was 
above observed, the lowest shoots must be preserved 
throughout the summer ; the other two having fruit 
at their base may be shortened back to about three 
inches after their leaves have attained the full size, 
and the base of the shoots has acquired some degree 
of firmness. The shoots of peach trees that have been 
neglected may be reduced to order without any material 
injury, if the removal of superfluous shoots is thus 
made by little at a time. {Gard, Chron. 1841, 380.) 



Ill 



Stopping the shoots in August, about the last week, 
is a very inportant operation. It is done by pinching 
off the leading bud of each, and thus preventing their 
increase of length concentrates the sap upon the 
wood, buds, &c. already formed, enables them to be 
more perfectly developed, and, being done late in the 
season, there is no danger of more laterals being in- 
duced. If the stopping is done too early, or if all the 
shoots are stopped at one time, laterals will be pro- 
duced and the organizable matter be diminished from, 
instead of concentrated on, the bearing-wood of next 
year. 

Autumn Pruning may be performed at the fall of 
the leaf, and thence, according to some professional 
writers, at any time in mild weather until spring. 
Let it be remembered that the earlier it is done in the 
autumn, the greater strength is given to the remain- 
ing shoots. It should be completed in February or 
early in March, before the blossom-buds are consider- 
ably advanced, which are distinguishable by being 
round, plump, and prominent, while the leaf and 
shoot-buds are oblong and narrow. Retain, in all 
parts of the tree, a competent supply of such regular 
grown shoots of last year as are apparently fruitful in 
blossom-buds. Most part of these should be short- 
ened, not indiscriminately, but according to their 
strength and situation ; the very strong shoots should 
be left longer, being topped about one-fourth or one- 



112 



third. Shoots of middling vigour reduce one-third 
or one-half ; and prune the very weak to two or three 
buds. Always cut at a shoot-bud to advance for a 
leader. Sometimes a shoot-bud lies between a twin 
blossom-bud ; cut half an inch above the bud . As 
many new shoots as will lie from three to six inches 
asunder may be deemed a competent supply : remove 
or reduce some part of the former bearers. Cut out 
quite close the redundant, irregular, and other impro- 
per shoots : remove or reduce some parts of the for- 
mer bearers of the two preceding years, cutting the 
most naked quite away, and others down to the most 
eligible young branch or well-placed shoot. Also 
take out all diseased and dead wood, retaining young 
where necessary to fill a vacuity. (Johnson's Diet, 
Mod. Gardening.) 

Sheltering the blossom is an essential practice to 
secure a crop of peaches ; for, at the time the blos- 
som is opening in April and May, there invariably 
occur easterly winds and night frosts, which always 
prove fatal if the blossoms are exposed to them with- 
out shelter. 

All cooling is occasioned either by the heat being 
conducted from a body by a colder, which is in con- 
tact with it, or by radiating from the body cooled, 
though circumstances accelerate or retard the radia- 
tion ; and whatever checks the radiation of heat from 
a body is a screen, and keeps it warmer. For exam- 



113 



pie, a thermometer placed upon a grass-plot, exposed 
to a clear sky, fell to 35 degs. ; but another thermo- 
meter, within a few yards of the preceding, but with 
the radiation of the rays of heat from the grass 
checked by no other covering than a cambric pocket- 
handkerchief, declined no lower than 42 degs. No 
diiFerence of result occurs whether the radiating sur- 
face be parallel or perpendicular to the horizon ; for 
when the mercury in a thermometer, hung against an 
openly-exposed wall, fell to 38 degs., another ther- 
mometer, against the same wall, but beneath a web of 
gauze stretched tightly, at a few inches distance, in- 
dicated a temperature of 43 degs. 

These results explain the beneficial operation of 
apparently such slight screens to our wall-fruit when 
in blossom. A sheet of canvass or of netting prevents 
the direct radiation of heat from the wall ; the cooling 
goes on more slowly, and is not reduced to that of the 
exterior air at night before the return of day begins 
to re-elevate the external temperature. 

The colder the body surrounding another body, 
the more rapid the radiation from the latter ; for it 
is a law of heat that it has a constant tendency to be 
diffused equally ; and the greater the diversity of 
temperature between two bodies in contact with each 
other, the greater is the rapidity with which the pro- 
gress towards equilibrium goes on. This is one rea- 
son why a temperature of 32 degs., with a brisk wind 



114 



attending it, will injure plants to a far greater extent 
than a temperature many degrees lower, with a still 
atmosphere ; but it is aided by the operation of an- 
other law of heat, viz., that aeriform bodies convey it 
from a cooling body, as a wall or a tree, by an actual 
change in the situation of their own particles. That 
portion of the air which is nearest to the cooling body 
is expanded, and becoming specifically lighter, ascends, 
and is replaced by a colder portion. This, in its turn, 
becomes heated and dilated, and gives place to an- 
other colder portion. And thus the process goes on, 
until the cooling body is reduced to the same tempe- 
rature as the air. 

In a still atmosphere, this goes on slowly ; the air 
in contact with the wall and tree rises very gradually 
as it imbibes wwmth from them ; but if there be a 
brisk wind, a constant current of air at the lowest 
temperature then occurring, is brought in constant 
contact with them, and the cooling is rapid, in accord- 
ance with the law of equilibrium just noticed. A 
shelter of netting, or even the sprays of evergreens, 
are of the greatest service in preventing the sweeping 
contact of cold air at such times. Snow is good 
shelter ; it prevents heat radiating from plants ; pro- 
tects them from the chilling blasts ; and is one of the 
worst conductors of heat. We have never known the 
surface of the earth, below a covering of snow, colder 
than 32 degs., even when the temperature of the air 
above has been 28 degs. 



115 



Strange as it may appear, yet it is nevertheless 
true, that a screen is more beneficial in preserving 
the temperature of trees, when from three to six 
inches from them, than when in immediate contact 
with their surfaces. When a woollen net was sus- 
pended four inches from the wall on which a peach 
tree was trained, the thermometer fell very slowly, 
and the lowest degree it reached was 38 degs. ; when 
the same screen was twelve inches off, it fell to 
34 degs. ; and when drawn tightly over the tree, it 
barely kept above 32 degs., the temperature of the 
exterior air. When at twelve inches from the wall, it 
permitted the too free circulation of the air; and 
when in immediate contact with the polished bark of 
the peach, perhaps another law of cooling came into 
operation. The law is, that polished surfaces radiate 
heat slowest. Thus, if two glass bottles, equal in 
size and thickness of glass, and of the same shape, be 
filled with warm water, and one of the bottles be co- 
vered with an envelope of fine muslin, this bottle will 
give out heat to the surrounding air with much 
greater rapidity than the other bottle ; so that, in a 
given time, the bottle with the envelop will be found 
colder than the one which has no covering. 

Screens, such as the preceding, or the slightest 
agents, sprays of evergreens, placed before the 
branches of wall-trees or other plants, as already no- 
ticed, operate beneficially in another way, checking 
I 2 



116 



the rapid passage of the air over them : such passage 
is detrimental in proportion to its rapidity, for the 
more rapid it is, the greater is the amount of evapo- 
ration, and, consequently, of cold produced. Mr. 
Daniell says, that a surface which exhales one hun- 
dred parts of moisture when the air is calm, exhales 
one hundi'ed and twenty-five parts when exposed to a 
moderate breeze, and one hundred and fifty parts 
when the wind is high.'^ 

Daring all high winds, but especially when blowing 
from points varying between the east and the south, 
for they are the driest in this country, the gardener 
will always find shelter is beneficial to his plants, 
whether in blossom or with fruit in its first stages of 
growth, for these winds cause an evaporation much 
exceeding in amount the supply of moisture afforded 
by the roots. 

In March, such shelters are much required, for the 
winds are then violent and dry even to a proverb ; 
but it is during the days of its successor, April, that 
sets in the only periodical wind known in this island. 
It comes intermittingly, and with a variable force 
from points ranging from east to north-east, and is 
one of the most blighting winds we have. It conti- 
nues until about the end of the second week in May, 
though often until its close ; and it is a good plan to 
have the tree, during the whole period, by day as 
well as by night, protected. This periodical wind is 



117 



occasioned, probably, by Sweden and Norway remain- 
ing covered with snow, whilst England is some 20 
degrees or more warmer ; and an upper current of 
warm air is consequently flowing hence to those coun- 
tries, whilst a cold under current is rushing hither to 
supply its place. This wind, and its consequent cold 
weather, is so regular in its appearance, that in Hamp- 
shire, and some other parts of England, the peasan- 
try speak of it as " the black-thorn winter," that bush 
being in blossom during a part of its continuance. 
(Johnson^ s Principles of Gardening,) 

We have already noticed that very slight protection 
is sufficient to keep the blossoms in safety. One 
simple mode is to strain lines from the top of your 
wall to the ground, at an angle of 20 degs., and then 
to run haybands across from line to line at 18 inches 
distance. There is no better protection for peaches 
in spring. But there are many others ; spruce-fir- 
branches, for instance. {Gard. Chron, 1846, 650.) 

Mr. Lee, of Ottery, St. Mary, Devonshire, has 
been in the habit of protecting his wall-fruit trees, 
during the period of flowering and setting of the fruitj 
vrith common fern. He merely inserts the fronds of 
the fern behind the branches, arranging them in front 
of, and in proportion to, the length of the shoots. 
{Gard, Mag. iv. 279.) 

Netting is used in a very efficient manner in the 
garden of the Horticultural Society of London, to 



118 



protect a peach-wall. The stone coping of this wall 
projects over it about an inch and a half, with a 
groove or throating underneath. Coping-boards nine 

inches broad, -^tted to join at their ends by means of 
plates of iron, are supported on iron brackets built 
into the wall. The annexed figure, 18, shews one of 
these brackets, in which a is an iron which is built 
into the wall, the thickness of a board below the stone 
coping ; and b, the hole for the iron pin which secures 
the wooden coping. To these brackets the coping- 
boards are secured by broad-headed iron pins, passing 
through corresponding holes (6) in the board and 




Fi:r. IS. 



bracket, a slip of iron, or ''spare-nail," being then in- 
troduced through an eye in the lower end of the pin. 
The upper edge of the board is slightly levelled, so as 
to fit as closely as possible to the under side of the 
coping of the wall, in order effectually to obstruct the 
radiation of heat, and the ascent of warm air. From 
this coping, woollen netting of various kinds, common 
netting such as fishermen use, bunting, and thin can- 
vass, have been let down, and tried experimentally, in 
the course of the last fifteen vears ; and we are ia- 



119 



formed by Mr. Thomson, that after repeated trials, 
the thin canvass was found the preferable article for 
utility, appearance, and duration. This description 
of fabric costs about 4d. per yard, procured from 
Dundee. It requires to be joined into convenient 
lengths, or into the whole length of the wall to be 
covered, and bound with tape at top and bottom, and 
to have loops or rings sewed to it at top, by which it 
is secured to small hooks screwed to the upper side of 
the coping-boards. These hooks serve also for attach- 
ing the ends of pieces of twine, which are stretched 
down to pegs driven in a line four feet from the bot- 
tom of the wall. These twine-rafters are stretched at 
intervals of twelve feet, and support the canvass at a 
uniform slope, the appearance being that of an elegant 
light roof, reaching to within three feet of the ground. 
The coping-boards are put up before the blossom-buds 
of the peach-trees are swelled so much as to exhibit 
the tips of the petals ; and before the most forward 
buds open, the thin canvass (or netting, if that should 
be preferred,) should be attached to the hooks. The 
covering is generally put up about the beginning of 
March, and it remains on without being opened or 
altered, till all danger from frost is over, which is 
generally, in the climate of London, about the middle 
of May. The coping is entirely removed at the same 
time as the canvass, because the trees are found to 
thrive much better when exposed to perpendicular 



120 



rams and dews. The canvass is found to be of great 
utility in bright sunny weather, when the trees are in 
full blossom; for the peach and other stone-fruit, 
which in their native country blossom at an early 
period of the season, whilst the air is yet cool, do not 
succeed so well in setting when the blossoms are ex- 
posed to as much as 100 deg., which they frequently 
are, against a south wall. The thin canvass admits 
also plenty of air ; w^hile woollen netting, which it 
might be thought would admit still more air, was 
found to render the leaves too tender, in which case 
they suffer from the intensity of the light when the 
netting is removed. Common thread netting is not 
liable to produce this effect, being much more airy ; 
and this netting has the advantage, when not placed 
farther than a foot from the wall, of admitting of the 
trees being syringed through it. Very little syring- 
ing, however, is required till the trees are out of blos- 
som, and none while they are in blossom ; and when 
the space between the canvass and the wall is nine 
inches wide at top, and four feet wide at the bottom, 
as in the Horticultural Society's garden, the syring- 
ing can be very well performed in the space within. 
Perhaps it would be an improvement in the case of 
the Horticultural Society's wall, to have the coping as 
much as eighteen inches wide, as no frost, unless very 
severe indeed, would injure the blossoms of fruit trees 
trained against a wall with such a projection ; but the 



121 



iron fastenings for such a coping would require to be 
much stronger than for nine-inch copings, on account 
of the greater power which the wind would have over 
them. {Loudon's Suhur^ban Gard, 175.) 

For wall-trees, now that glass is become so much 
cheaper, the best of all screens may be employed, 
viz., glazed frames, of a length extending from the 
coping of the wall to the surface of the soil, about 
two feet from the stems of the trees. 

There is some difference of opinion, we confess, 
even amongst practical men, as to the propriety of 
protection, but we can state that, after a trial of 
manyyears, we see no reason to doabt its efficacy, 
and could wish to see it both more generally adopted 
and rendered more complete then we usually find it. 
If the copings are temporary we would have them as 
wide as we could get them, providing they could be 
made safe. The arguments about excluding the dews 
we regard as nothing in this case ; indeed, such are 
as well dispensed with during the blossoming period. 
The protection we use is a coarse canvass of an open 
texture ; the meshes about the eighth of an inch in 
diameter. We generally put ours up a week or two 
before the blossoms open, in order to retard, or at 
least prevent, the too hurried opening of the blossoms, 
which may occur somewhat prematurely through in- 
tense sunshine. Great attention should be given as 
to the daily removal of it when the trees are in bios- 



122 



som, and, indeed, as long as it remains on the trees, 
for the blossom will soon become weak and the leaves 
etiolated if this point be neglected. When, however, 
a cutting east wind prevails, we make a point of leav- 
ing the canvass on : such winds do much damage in 
robbing both wall and tree of their heat. 

Thinning, — The first thinning should take place 
when the fruit is about the size of peas, and should be 
performed with care ; a small but blunt pointed pair 
of scissors is often used with advantage, or the finger 
and thumb, with a small pointed stick, is very well 
adapted for removing them. At this thinning a few 
only should be taken. The second thinning should 
be performed when the fruit is about the size of small 
gooseberries. If this second thinning could be dis- 
pensed with, it would be of great advantage to the 
trees ; but from such causes as overcropping the pre- 
ceding year, and the multiplied causes which affect 
the health of the trees, many of the fruit fall off during 
the season of stoning, so that experience has proved 
the necessity of leaving a few to be removed at this 
season. The quantity of fruit each tree should bear 
ought to be determined by the state of the tree itself. 
Sickly and young trees should be allowed to bear 
fewer fruit than the healthy and well-established 
plants ; and in either case those varieties which pro- 
duce large fruit should not be allowed to mature so 
great a number as those which bear small fruit. Over- 



123 



luxuriant trees should be allowed to bear what is 
termed a heavy crop ; this will moderate their luxuri- 
ance, and prove beneficial to the tree itself. (Gard, 
and Flor. iii. 333.) 

Thinning, like disbudding, is best done in a pro- 
gressive way. Our practice is to go over in the first 
case and remove those which are in contact with each 
other, or at least one where two fruits touch. Where 
a good " set" occurs, they will soon require another 
thinning, and by this time those which are of supe- 
rior character and size may be readily distinguished. 
Inferior fruit and cripples may now be removed, at 
least where too thick. By the time that the young- 
shoots require tacking to the wall, a few more may 
require to be removed, and, by this time, some will be 
distorted by being squeezed between the shoots and 
the wall. These, if the crop be abundant, may at once 
be removed. 

Perhaps the rule nearest to general applicability, is 
to have a space of nine inches between every brace of 
fruit upon the weaker shoots, and a six-inch space 
between those on the stronger ; but first-rate fruit of 
the large varieties should never be nearer than 12 
inches to each other. 

Gathering should take place a day or two before 
the fruit is to be used, and before it is dead ripe, and 
it should be laid on clean paper in the summer-fruit- 
room. Peaches may be gathered in the heat of the 



124 



day without any deterioration of flavour ; in this re- 
spect they are very different from such northern fruits 
as the gooseberry, currant, and strawberry, which 
should be gathered in the morning. {Suburban Gard. 
594.) 

It is a common practice to lay littery material be- 
neath the trees to save from bruising the fruit which 
falls, and sometimes those which fall are extremely lus- 
cious. We would, however, rather remove them from 
the tree by hand, but this is a practice which requires 
experience. In very hot weather some kinds of peaches 
will be ripe and soft on the high-coloured side, and 
quite hard on the other ; this seems to show that 
the ripening has been too hurried. Indeed, in hot 
summers, or periods of continued sunshine, we are 
persuaded that this is frequently the case, and that 
over quick ripening is antagonistic to high flavour. 
This principle is well known in the case of strawberries, 
melons, &c., and will be found to hold good with re- 
gard to the peach. Since it is impossible to tell when 
all kinds are ripe by mere appearance, a little thumb- 
ing becomes necessary, and a gentle squeeze at the 
point where the stalk joins the fruit will soon deter- 
mine whether it be ripe enough. This mode, we con- 
fess, will produce a very trifling amount of discoloura- 
tion, but if nicely managed such will hardly be seen ; 
and fruit which are somewhat soft at this point will 
generally be in prime order. 



125 



When peaches hang long on the tree after their 
usual period of maturity, their flavour invariably 
becomes deteriorated. Melting peaches, like the Late 
Admirable, become mealy, while the sugary nature 
of the juice is changed. CHngstone varieties, such 
as the Catherine, retain their qualities longer. {Gard, 
Chron. 1845, 820.) 

PEACH-HOUSE. 

Its construction. — The best form for a peach-house 
is thus described by the late T. A. Knight, Esq. 



As the lights to be moved to the required extent 
with facility must necessarily be short, the back wall 
of the house must scarcely extend nine feet in height, 
and this height raises the rafters sufficiently high to 
permit the tallest person to walk with perfect conve- 
nience under them. The lights are divided in the 
middle at the point a, and the lower are made to slide 
down to the d, and the upper to the point a. The 
flue or hot water pipe enters on the east or west end, 
as most convenient, and passes within six inches of 




3 



126 



the east and west wall, but not within less than two 
feet of the low front wall, and it returns in a parallel 
line through the middle of the house, in the direction 
either east or west, and goes out at the point at which 
it entered. The house takes two rows of peach or 
nectarine trees, one of which is trained on trelHses, 
with intervals between for the gardener to pass, paral- 
leled with the dotted line c. These trees must be 
planted between the flue and the front wall, and the 
other row near the back wall, against which they are 
to be trained. 

If early varieties be planted in the front, and the 
earliest where the flue first enters, these being trained 
immediately over the flue, and at a small distance 
above it, will ripen first ; and if the lower lights be 
drawn down in fine weather to the point b, every 
part of the fruit on the trees which are trained nearly 
horizontally along the dotted line c, will receive the 
full influence of the sun. The upper lights must be 
moved as usual by cords and pulleys, and if these be 
let down to the point a, after the fruit in the front 
tree is gathered, every part of the trees on the back 
wall will be fully exposed to the sun, at any period of 
the spring and summer after the middle of April, 
without the intervention of the glass. A single fire- 
place will be suflicient for a house fifty feet long, 
and the foregoing plan and dimensions will be 
found to combine more advantage than can ever be 



127 



obtained in a higher or wider house. Both the walls 
and flue must stand on arches, to permit the roots of 
the trees to extend themselves in every direction 
beyond the limits of the \valls, for w^iatever be the 
more remote causes of mildew, the immediate cause 
generally appears to be want of moisture beneath the 
soil, with much dampness above it. A bar of wood must 
extend from d to b, opposite the middle of each lower 
lihgt, to support it when drawn down. {Knight's 
Papers, 186.) 

The angle recommended by Mr. Knight as being- 
best for the peach-house is 34 degs. 55 min., suppos- 
ing that the greatest attainable amount of light is re- 
quired in May. This, however, was calculated for the 
latitude of his own residence, Downton, in Hereford- 
shire ; but as the latitude and the time when most 
light is required vary, we give the following rules as 
detailed by Mr. Caie, whereby any one may ascertain 
the most desirable angle for the roof of his peach- 
house, accordingly as circumstances vary. 

In the construction of forcing-houses, the proper 
angles should be selected to suit the period intended 
for producing each particular crop, and to be adapted 
for different latitudes, to receive the most vertical rays 
of the sun for ripening the fruit. The sun's declina- 
tion in each month : — 

DEG. MIN. 

Jan. 21, the declination is, south . . 19 52 
Feb. 21 „ „ 10 29 



128 



Mar. 21, the decimation is, north . 


. 0 


19 


Apr. 21 


3} 


99 


11 


55 


May 21 


ii 


99 


20 


13 


June 21 


3) 


99 


23 


28 


July 21 


if 


99 


20 


13 


Aug. 21 


9» 


99 


12 


27 


Sept. 21 


if 


99 


0 


40 


Oct. 21 


a 


south . 


. 10 


46 


Nov. 21 


99 


99 


19 


59 


Dec. 21 


99 


99 


23 


28 



When the sun has a north declination, or is north 
of the equator : — 

DEG. MIN. 

From the degree of latitude, say . . 52 0 
Subtract the sun's declination, sup- 
pose about the 22nd June, when 
it is highest 23 30 



The remainder gives the angle required 28 30 

When the sun has a south declination, or is south 
of the equator : — 

DEG. MIN. 



To the degree of latitude 52 0 

Add the sun's declination, suppose 
about the 22nd Dec, when it is 
least 23 30 



The remainder gives the angle required 75 30 
The degree of latitude must be that of the place 



where it is intended to erect the houses. {Gard, 
Chron. 1841, 198.) 

The peach-house recommended by Mr. Knight is 
heated either by flues or hot water in pipes, but Mr. 
W. Henderson, gardener to W. F. Campbell, Esq., 



129 



of Lanark, has furnished the following description of 
a peachery, very successfully heated, in part, by fer- 
raenting materials : — 

The peach-house is 45 feet long, and 13 feet six 
inches wide ; the front of the house stands on pillars ; 
the trees are planted inside of the house, 14 inches 
from the front wall. There are two nine-inch courses 
of freestone above the border, and a sash ; which, in- 
cluding the top and bottom wall-plates of wood, makes 
the whole height of the front four feet six inches. A 
man can pass along the front, betwixt the trees and 
the upright sash, to prune and dress them as far as 
he can reach up. The trees are trained on a trellis 
of wood ; this, at first, is three and a half feet distant 
from the front sash ; after it passes the front sash, 
the trellis is parallel to the sloping glass, two feet 
three inches from the glass, and is continued thus to 
the top of the house. There is only one flue, which, 
coming from the back, at the east end of the house, 
runs along the middle of the border to the opposite 
end, and returns, entering into a chimney over the 
fire. Between the flue and the back wall, is a pit 
three feet deep, and four feet eight inches wide, which 
is kept filled with dead leaves of trees, the steam of 
which contributes much to the healthiness of the trees 
within the house. The flue is raised 19 inches above 
the border ; the return flue is contiguous to the pit, 
being separated only by a partition of bricks on edge. 
k: 



130 



The top of the flue thus doubled, being three feet 
wide, is covered with stone three inches thick, which 
forms a walk along the middle of the house. {Hort, 
Soc. Trans, vii. 209.) 

The combination of a fermenting body with fire- 
heat is of course judicious, especially where a flue is 
employed, which is now generally considered a nui- 
sance. We regret that Mr. Henderson did not state 
the precise position of the flue, which, we confess, we 
cannot infer from his paper. We have grown peaches 
by a similar plan, and have obtained several medals 
for them : our heating was, however, pipes in combi- 
nation with the steam from leaves. Two feet three 
inches is rather too far from the roof. Ours is about 
eighteen inches, which distance we find amply suffi- 
cient. 

Our own experience is decidedly in favour of hot 
water in tanks as a source of heat for the peach house ; 
not only because it is the most regular and most man- 
ageable, but because, as observed by Mr. Liddiard, it 
is free from the noxious gases that escape through the 
joints of brick flues. Although good crops are pro- 
duced from houses heated by flues, nevertheless, as 
they were generally heated by one flue, that part near 
the fire is always many degrees hotter than the oppo- 
site end, and this is unfavourable for the production 
of good fruit at an early season. Such an irregularity 
is obviated by the use of hot water, an equal degree of 



131 



temperature being secured in all parts of the house. 
{Gard. Chron, 1841, 198.) 

Temperature. — As might be expected from the 
native country of the peach, it is very impatient of a 
high temperature in the early period of its vegetation. 
\Ye have observed upon this, however, in a previous 
page. If the mean temperature of February amounts 
to 40 degs., and that of March to 44 or 45 degs., 
the peach tree will be in full flower against a wall 
with a south aspect about the last week in March ; 
and the general crop will be ripe in the last week of 
August, or first week of September, provided the 
mean temperature of April be 49 degs.. May 55 degs., 
June 61 degs., July 64 degs , and that of August 63 
degs. The period required for the maturation of 
the fruit from the time of flowering is, on the open 
wall, five months ; but it may be reduced to four by 
means of fire-heat and the protection of glass. It 
cannot, however, be advantageously diminished any 
further. This fact being borne in mind, it is easy 
for the gardener to know at what time to commence 
forcing his peaches in order to obtain a crop in a 
given month. As it must be flowered under a com- 
paratively low degree of temperature, it cannot, there- 
fore, be well forced simultaneously with the vine ; for 
the temperature of March, which in this climate 
seems to bring the peach into flower, does not unfold 
the buds of the vine, this being only effected a month 
K 2 



132 



or six weeks farther in the seasou hy a mean tempe- 
rature of 55 degs. The peach may be subjected at 
first to a temperature of 45 degs., but not exceeding 
55 degs. till the flowering is over, after which it may 
be gradually raised to 60 degs., and not exceeding 65 
degs., till the substance of the stone is indurated ; 
and after this crisis from 65 to 70 degs. may be al- 
lowed. This is to be understood as referring to the 
application of fire-heat. Even in the total absence o 
the latter, sun-heat will frequently raise the tempera- 
ture much higher ; but in this case a large portion of 
air should be supplied, not, however, all at once after 
the temperature of the house is found too high, but 
gradually as the temperature increases. Air should 
be always freely admitted through the day when the 
weather is at all favourable. {LoudorCs Suburban 
Gard. 473.) 

As it is injurious to subject the peach to a high 
day temperature during its blossoming period, so is it 
still more injurious to allow it to endure a high night 
temperature, at any time of its growth. We have 
had it as low as 34 degs. without any injury, both 
when the trees have been in blossom and when the 
fruit has been as large as small marbles ; and we are 
quite sure that from 40 to 45 degs. is the best night 
temperature during all its periods of growth. Some 
gardeners, however, use considerably higher tempera- 
ture ; but although they obtain a ripe crop somewhat 



133 



earlier occasionally, yet it is always accompanied by a 
greater risk of total failure, and a certainty of having 
low-flavoured fruit. 

Mr. W. Hutchinson, gardener at Eastington Park, 
is one who employs higher temperatures. His direc- 
tions are to bring the trees into the house in mild 
weather, generally during November, a little earlier 
or later, according to the state of the weather ; but 
not to start them all at once. The last lot are not 
put in until the 1st of January ; any later than this 
would not answer, as the weather, if clear, is then hot 
through the day. He commences forcing them at 55 
degs. at night, allowing the thermometer to fall to 50 
degs. in the morning, if cold ; but, if the weather is 
mild, never to fall below 55 degs., and from that to 
60 degs. is the usual temperature kept up throughout 
the period of forcing during the night. During the 
day, he makes up for low night temperature, when he 
has the chance, by sun heat. He is not fastidious 
about a few degrees ; to get it high enough is the 
main point — say from 70 to 85 and 90 degs., until 
the fruit is stoned ; then keep them very hot during 
the day, viz., from 95 to 105 degs., and sometimes 
even as high as 1 10. Of course a great deal of mois- 
ture is required with this high temperature ; syringe 
over head twice a day, and sometimes oftener, when 
the air is dry ; you will seldom be troubled with either 
green-fly or red-spider. {Gard, Chron. 1844, 747.) 



134 



We confess ourselves somewhat alarmed at the free 
way in which Mr. Hutchinson deals with high tem- 
peratures. We do not doubt that he has been suc- 
cessful, but we much doubt whether all other 
parties will be so good root managers, and prove as 
successful as Mr. H. They are certainly tempera- 
tures which we should not indulge in without a neces- 
sity : still we should protest against any set rules 
which should proscribe an advance of a few degrees 
when a great amount of solar heat existed. Much 
depends on a good root, and much on the general 
amount of solar light at any given period. Above 
all, we say, be moderate at night ; we have seldom 
known houses too low then. 

Borders. — This subject has been fully considered 
whilst giving directions for wall culture, and we have 
nothing very particular to add to those directions for 
the formation of borders. Drainage is the first and 
most important consideration. 

Pruning and Training are also the same as required 
for walls; 

Disbudding. — Even under the best and most care- 
ful management, the peach-tree grows weaker when 
cultivated in a hot-house than when in the open air. 
To obviate this, and consequently to promote its 
strength, it is desirable to adopt every legitimate 
means, and foremost of these is disbudding. Mr. 
Liddiard judiciously directs, that, when the fruit is 



135 



about the size of peas, disbudding should commence, 
leaving very few shoots more than would be required 
for producing the following years' crop ; he first thins 
when the fruit is about the size of a hazel-nut, then 
when it is the size of a walnut, and lastly when the 
stone becomes hardened. The distance at which each 
fruit should be left depends upon the health and state 
of the tree. When the fruit is stoned, he raises the 
temperature to 60 degs., but gives little or no water 
until this has happened, when it may be supplied 
plentifully ; air is freely admitted as the fruit ripens, 
and some leaves removed to expose it to the sun, to 
increase the flavour, and to acquire a high colour. 
{Ibid, 1841, 198.) 

Mr. Liddiard's practice is very good on the whole ; 
and we must add, that disbudding and stopping are 
of more importance, if possible, indoors than on the 
open wall. The disbudding indoors should (as before 
observed with regard to wall culture,) be performed 
a little at a time and frequently. Indeed, we disbud 
a few shoots almost daily when the fruit are swelling 
from the size of peas to that of a hazel-nut. Stop- 
ping, moreover, is equally important, providing any 
gross shoots arise. Such will assuredly rob the weaker 
parts of the tree if permitted to grow unstopped. 
This we think better than so much winter pruning, 
and may be termed a preventive system. 

Stopping, — As soon as you perceive the least 



136 



change towards ripening in the fruit, stop the points 
of all the young wood, with the exception of a few of 
the weakest shoots at the lower part of the tree, and 
these keep growing until the end of the season, in 
order to get as much sap in them as possible. In 
the course of their ripening, abundance of air is to be 
given both night and day, and every leaf which shades 
the fruit is to be entirely removed. They cannot ripen 
too slowly ; the slower they ripen, if not absolutely 
starved, the better. Syringing is of course to be withheld 
altogether, as well as steaming, but as soon as the last 
fruit is gathered, the tree should be completely bat- 
tered with water morning and evening, and the house 
shut up early in the afternoon, with a thermometer 
of ninety to ninety five degrees of sun-heat when it 
can be obtained, and this course persisted in until the 
leaves turn colour, when the heat by sunshine may 
range even higher still. By these means the wood 
is most completely ripened, and in pruning cuts 
more like oak than peach-wood. During all the 
ripening process the border inside the house should 
be allowed to become dry ; in fact, water entirely 
withheld from the moment the least appearance of 
change in a single peach is perceived towards ripening. 
{Hort, Soc, Trans, ii. 362.) 

Watering and Syringing, — One essential for secur- 
ing vigorous production in the peach-house is to have 
the roots of the trees well nourished. If these are 



137 



not duly supplied with moisture and food during the 
time the fruit is setting and swelUng, a failure of the 
crop is inevitable. To secure such a supply, it is a 
most effectual treatment to give the border a top- 
dressing, at the close of February, of charred turf. 
Water, of course, must be given also, as the dryness 
of the soil and appearance of the trees indicate is ne- 
cessary. 

From the period that the fruit begin to swell off 
until they commence ripening, the trees must have 
most copious syringings and steamings, excepting 
that in the months of February or March, in cold 
dull weather, you must be a little more niggardly of 
water, taking care especially that, if you syringe in 
the afternoon, it is done early, so as to have the leaves 
dry by the evening ; for a temperature of 34 to 40 
degs. by night and a wet leaf would by no means 
agree. 

Impregnation. — ^When the blossoms are well opened, 
impregnation should be assisted by applying the pol- 
len to the stigma by means of a camel' s-hair brush. 

This is a crisis which requires some particular at- 
tention. The best way is to increase the temperature 
slightly, especially in the day time, and to give a freer 
circulation of air. The fires should be encouraged 
early in the morning, and as much air given betimes 
as will expel the confined damp ; for, although a cer- 
tain amount of moisture in the atmosphere is neces- 



138 



sary, especially during the night, to enable the flower 
bud to burst its bonds, yet, as Mr. Paxton long since 
urged, dryness is indispensable to the dispersion of 
the pollen. After a lively day of this kind, our prac- 
tice is to give a slight syringing about four or five 
o'clock in the afternoon, and to take away all air 
immediately, resuming the practice in the next day 
before detailed. As soon as they are out of blossom 
we syringe them as freely as before, and, indeed, en- 
deavour to produce abundance of atmospheric mois- 
ture. We thus proceed to the period of disbudding, 
which will extend over some three weeks, steadily in- 
creasing the day temperature, but using great mode- 
ration in the night. Indeed, the day temperature 
must not be hedged in with any dry rules, but, in the 
main, regulated by the amount of light. As soon as 
the first swelling is completed and the stoning com- 
mences, we suffer the extreme points to extend some- 
what freely without any stopping, unless in case of 
great luxuriance, still keeping up a sweet and some- 
what moist air by frequent syringings, sprinkling 
floors, &c. 

Watering the Borders, — This is a very important 
matter. If the borders had a proper watering at the 
period of closing the house, little more will be needed 
until the fruit is in rapid progress during the first 
swelling ; in fact, when the fruit are as large as nuts. 
Liquid manure will then be of service, providing the 



139 



border is sound, and a healthy action of root is known 
to exist. We use guano water after the rate of six 
ounces to a gallon, blending therewith soot water, 
both highly clarified. The latter can scarcely be too 
strong. They will require such applications on the 
average about once in a fortnight up to the period 
when the last swelling commences, increasing the 
amount progressively. "When the fruit begin to change, 
watering must immediately be withheld, but resumed 
again as soon as the last peach is gathered. More facts 
bearing on this part of the question will be found 
both in the preceding and succeeding matter. 

Prevention of Bruised Fruit , — When it is quite ripe, 
the border should be covered with moss, or some soft 
substance, or nets suspended under the trees, to pre- 
vent those which drop off from being bruised ; but 
the best flavour is obtained by gathering the fruit a 
day before it is dead ripe, and ripening it for twenty 
or thirty hours in the fruit-room. {Suburban Gard. 
476.) 

Removal of Glass, — It was the old-fashioned sys- 
tem to remove the sashes from the peach-house so 
soon as the fruit was ripened, and many ancient gar- 
deners went the length of stating their conviction that 
the trees would cease to be fruitful unless they were 
thus exposed. That theirs was an erroneous convic- 
tion is proved by the fact that Mr. Errington, who is 
celebrated as a successful peach-grower, has peach- 



140 



trees in full vigour and productiveness growing under 
glass which has never been removed since they were 
planted. 

Notwithstanding this, it is still a custom with many- 
gardeners, when they have gathered the crop from 
their peach-house, to remove the sashes immediately 
and expose the trees to the open air. Though this 
is a common practice, we cannot immagine for what 
purpose it is done, or how peach trees can be bene- 
fited by being exposed to the air ; it is not because 
the wood ripens sooner, or better, that the sashes are 
taken off ; for neither of these effects can be produced 
by such treatment. We have, up to the time the 
fruit is gathered, treated the trees more like tender 
exotics than any thing else : for months they have 
been used to a warm humid atmosphere, many degrees 
above the temperature of the external air ; their shoots 
and foliage are consequently tender, the sap is flowing 
rapidly and thinly, and the trees are luxuriating in a 
tropical climate. Suddenly, the sashes are removed, 
and they are subjected to all the vicissitudes of a 
British climate, exposed to the pitiless storm," the 
cold nights, and all the variations to which our climate 
is subject. A diminution in the temperature, of 
course, causes a diminution in the flow of the sap ; the 
growth of the tree is partially arrested, and it does 
not regain its vigour for that season. These checks 
must have a most mischievous effect on the health of 



141 



the trees : it is certain that the wood is never per- 
fectly ripened under this treatment. Thus trees that 
are forced in hothouses never last so long as those 
that are planted out of doors ; and the gardener fre- 
quently finds it necessary to give his plants, at least 
such as are forced early, a rest" for one year ; that 
is, he does not force them, but leaves them to nature 
for a year, excepting the disbudding, pruning, and 
other necessary operations which they may require. 
Very fine fruit is grown in houses from which the 
sashes have been removed immediately after the fruit 
has been gathered ; but it requires no little skill to 
keep the trees in a healthy and bearing state. We 
must admit, too, that there are other circumstances 
prejudicial besides taking off the sashes, which tend 
to decrease the vigour of the teees ; but we think 
their removal to be the principal one. Unless, then, 
the sashes should be particularly wanted for some 
other purpose, we recommend their being kept on the 
house. Air may be admitted pretty freely during 
the day-time ; the trees may have a good watering 
over head two or three times a week, which will keep 
the leaves clean and enable them the better to per- 
form the important functions allotted to them. 
When, however, the trees begin to exhibit symptoms 
of having completed their growth for the season, the 
syringing had better be discontinued. By these 
means the trees will go on regularly adding new 



142 



matter to the heart-wood, which, at the time of 
pruning, will be found hard and well-ripened, and 
with much less alburnum than those trees that have 
been exposed to wind and weather throughout the 
autumn and winter. {Gard, Chron. 1842, 494.) 

There is centainly no real necessity for taking the 
roof-Hghts off, as is proved by daily experience. Ne- 
vertheless, if a house of the kind was not wanted for 
other purposes, we should have no objection to it, 
providing the trees were prepared for it by a gradual 
lowering of the temperature for a week or two pre- 
viously, and providing, also, it was fine weather. The 
only reason we have, however, is, that in indifferent or 
cloudy periods the leaf would enjoy a greater amount 
of hght, which we hold to be of great importance. 

Winter treatment. — After the winter-pruning, im- 
mediately stop every wound, whether from pruning 
or from accident, with a coat of thick white paint ; 
this is to be repeated on all the larger wounds. The 
wounds being dressed, immediately stove the house 
with sulphur blended with sawdust, and burnt in 
shallow pans ; and afterwards dress the tree two or 
three times with soft soap, sulphur, and tobacco- 
water, brushing it carefully into every bud and cre- 
vice with a painting-brush. This mixture is not 
made so strong as recommended by some gardening 
authors, as Mr. Errington depends much on the 
careful brushing and flooding every part of the tree. 



143 



After the above fumigating and washing, about the 
middle of November, the shoots should be pruned 
and tied in, the borders lightly forked over, a little 
charred turf put on them inside, and some long litter, 
a foot deep, on the border outside, to protect the 
roots from frost. 

Other systems, — Having given the results of our 
own experience, whether originally our own or confir- 
matory of the practices of others, we will now give 
the modes of forcing adopted by Mr. Henderson and 
Mr. Mearns, not because they differ from our own, 
but because they offer some useful hints. 

Mr» W, Henderson^ gardener to W. F. Campbell, 
Esq., of Lanark, directs the peach-forcer to shut up 
the house about the 1 st of December. If the weather 
be mild, apply no fire-heat for two weeks ; but if it 
be frosty, put on a little fire every night. In the 
course of four weeks the buds begin to swell ; being 
at that time able to distinguish the best buds, prune 
and cut away as much as possible of the wood that 
bore the fruit last season, and tie in the young shoots 
that were made in the course of the summer. These 
shoots were allowed to grow upright, and were not 
tied down till this time. Cut out all the worst 
shoots, and leave none except those that are well- 
ripened, and full of perfect and strong flower-buds ; 
these shoots shorten from fourteen to six inches, ac- 
cording to their strength, always observing to cut 



144 



them at a leaf-bud. Lay in the shoots that are to 
bear the peaches, from six to nine inches apart ; after 
the young wood is all tied in, go over the trees, and 
rub or cut off a great number of the flower-buds, 
carefully observing to leave the best and strongest. 
When the peaches are set, and about the size of peas, 
give a gentle sprinkling over the leaves with water 
once every six or seven days in the forenoon, in order 
that the leaves may become dry before night ; about 
the middle of March sprinkle the trees in the after- 
noon, this keeps the air in the house moist and 
kindly through the night. The trees now beginning 
to make wood for next year's crop, go over them with 
care, and rub off a quantity of the young shoots, ob- 
serving to keep those which are left in a kind of re- 
gular order, none being preserved except where there 
is room for them. Do not tie in these young shoots 
that are left for next year's crop, but allow them to 
grow upright with their tops to the glass ; by this 
means you do not crowd or disturb the shoots whereon 
the fruit is growing ; there is sufficient of sun and 
air between these young upright shoots to ripen the 
peaches, and give them both fine colour and good 
flavour. As the season advances, give the trees a 
good sprinkling over the leaves, twice every week, be- 
tween four and five o'clock in the afternoon, in order 
that they may get the benefit of the water through 
the night ; continue the sprinkling while warm sunny 



145 



weather continues, but if the weather happens to be 
dull and cloudy, discontinue the sprinkling till warm 
sun returns. About two weeks after the peaches have 
taken the ripening swelling, stop the sprinkling, give 
the house a great deal of air, and keep no fire-heat 
through the day ; but, if the weather be dark or wet, 
put on a little fire every night. If the weather happens 
to be warm and dry, give the house air through the 
night, and no fire-heat. {Hort. Soc. Trans, vii. 210.) 

3Ir, 3fearns does not approve of the Dutch method 
of resting the trees every alternate year, and considers 
the practice is a bad one, as the tree once forced, when 
due attention has been paid to the roots, is in the best 
state for early excitement again ; a tree taken direct 
from a wall not so, as it is excited two or three months 
before its natural season. If a judicious attention be 
paid to the roots, the same tree is far more success- 
fully forced for a great many years. A late gardener 
to Lord Stafford told Mr. Mearns that an amateur 
clergyman near Norwich had successfully forced the 
same trees for more than thirty years. His practice 
was to take them up every season as soon as they had 
done growing, and to plant them against a northern 
aspect till the end of November, and in the mean time 
to clear all the soil from his border, and fill it again 
with well-prepared compost. His usual time to com- 
mence forcing was the beginning of January. Mr, 
Mearns had a small house erected for the experi- 



146 



ment at Shobdon Court, many years ago, to try the 
practice, and followed it up for two years with suc- 
cess ; but the removal of the trees is unnecessary, 
as, with a due attention to the roots, the following 
method answers better, and is attended with much 
less trouble and expense than the above. There are 
few gardens that have so much north walling to spare, 
and a better end is obtained without the sacrifice. 
Confine the roots of the trees for forcing within a 
walled border of from four to six feet wide, accord- 
ing to the extent of surface which is desired for the 
trees to cover, and from sixteen to eighteen inches 
deep. The soil which is used to plant in, nothing else 
than the perfectly fresh turfy top from a good mellow 
loamy pasture field, coarsely chopped up ; and if the 
trees are of a proper age, the crop will be as fine the 
first season as at any future period. Water plenti- 
fully, but judiciously, in the swelling season ; but more 
plentifully in the last stage of swelling, and then the 
fruit will swell off to a fine size, if the following atten- 
tions are paid. As soon as the fruit begins to change 
colour, leave off watering the roots almost entirely, 
and none over the leaves and fruit till all is gathered ; 
at the same time exposing them as much as possible 
to the direct action of the sun's rays and atmospheric 
air, till all is gathered ; and that you may lose no 
time in forcing, by so much exposure to the atmos- 
pheric air and direct rays of light, allow the house to 



147 



be very hot in the morning before giving air ; and 
then give it by degrees, till the roof is completely 
thrown open ; and again, unless rain falls, do not shut 
up till late in the day, and then in sufficient time to 
allow of having a high temperature, either with fire 
or sun, so as to accelerate the forcing, till you com- 
mence gathering, at which period, if you have enough 
for the demand, keep all as open and exposed as pos- 
sible, only sheltering from rain to the last, when you 
remove the lights, wash the trees several times power- 
fully, and give a good soaking to the roots, with soft, 
rain, river, or pond w^ater. Renovate the roots every 
three or four years, by taking off six or eight inches 
from the top of the border, not even sparing the sm.all 
roots ; and also a foot or eighteen inches from the 
extremity of the border, so as to clear away all the 
roots matted against the wall, and fill up the trench 
as at first with fresh turfy soil, and forking a portion 
in amongst the roots over all the border, so as to raise 
it a little above its former height ; by this practice the 
trees are sufficiently renovated for three or four years 
more, and do not receive such a check as by the 
Dutch practice. No tree will thrive, whatever the 
soil may be, if insects and moss are suffered to har- 
bour upon them, and the best time to remove them is 
just when the winter pruning is over ; then go over 
every tree about the houses and walls, in the most 
careful manner ; first scraping off all possible extrane- 
L 2 



148 



ous matter, after the trees are taken from the trelUs or 
wall, with the following composition : — The strongest 
drainage of the farm-yard one gallon ; soft-soap 1 lb. ; 
flowers of brimstone i lb.; mix; let all stand for 
several days, stirring the mixture three or four times 
a day ; get ready some finely-sifted quicklime, and stir 
into it, till of the consistence of good stiff paint, when 
it is ready to be applied ; its effects are certain and 
excellent. Lay it on with painter's sash-tools, of dif- 
ferent sizes. Coat over, carefully, every part of the 
tree so effectually, that not a bud, chink, or crevice 
escapes the mixture. Use the whitest lime for the 
hothouses, as, when dry, you can see any axil of a 
bud or crevice that may have escaped the first dress- 
ing ; and to make sure, go over them two or three 
timxCs. After such a dressing, all animalcules are so 
completely destroyed, that neither green-fly, thrips, 
scale, or red spider, are to be seen during the season. 
As white lime does not look sightly upon wall-trees, 
either mix soot with jt, or else use the mixture with- 
out either the soot or lime. (Hort, Soc, Trans, ii. 
37.) 

Peach Trees and Fines together, — Although, as 
we have said, it is difficult to force these in the same 
structure, yet the difficulty is not insurmountable. 
They are so forced at the Earl of Jersey's; and Mr. 

F. D. Levington gives these directions for carry- 
ing it out. Where he so cultivated them the house 



149 



is forty feet long, by sixteen wide. It is heated by 
one furnace, situated at the east end. The first 
course of heat is carried immediately under the pave- 
ment to the front flue, by ascending into which, it 
rises one foot in the angle, two feet from the front, 
and the same from the end walls. It is carried along 
this flue thirty-six feet, descends under the pavement 
at the west end, and again rises two feet perpendicu- 
larly into the back flue, five feet from the end wall, 
and four from the front flue. This part of the flue 
is thirty feet long, and descends in like manner under 
the pavement at the east end, through which it passes 
into the chimney situated immediately over the fur- 
nace. It thus makes a circuit of one hundred feet, 
chiefly round the front half of the house. The stage 
occupies a space of thirty feet by eight, leaving a space 
of five feet at each end, w^hich, by a partition of orna- 
mental lattice-work, the full height of the glass and 
width of the stage, forms these spaces at each end 
into two very neat lobbies. These are appropriated 
to the growth of the finer sorts of climbing plants ; 
and the stage is capable of containing from 800 to , 
1000 plants in pots. The peach-trellis occupies the 
whole length of the house, and contains a surface of 
280 square feet, to which the trees are trained. The 
front wall is arched, and a prepared peach-border is 
made for the roots, two feet wide inside, and eight 
feet wide outside, and four feet deep. A shelf of 



150 



eight inches width is erected immediately under the 
sloping rafters in fronts, principally for the purpose of 
holding strawberry-pots, the fruit of which may be 
brought to perfection here at any season, with very 
little trouble. At other times the shelf may be useful 
in holding Cape bulbs, seedlings, and other dwarf 
plants. The vine-border is at the back of the house, 
whereby the site in front is gained for a peach-border, 
vdthout the vines in anywise interfering with the 
growth of the peach-trees ; and as vines seldom pro- 
duce any fruit below the top of the upright rafters, 
which is the only space occupied by the peach-trees, 
the space occupied by them is entirely gained in this 
over the usual arrangement of hothouses. The pave- 
ment of the gangway is in front of the stage, which 
allows a space of three feet between the back flue and 
peach-trellis, elevated eighteen inches above the level 
of the lobbies, and the same length of the back flue 
and stage, thus aflbrding an easy command over the 
stage and peach-trellis, and ascending by two steps at 
each end. Supposing the house to be now filled with 
the proper quantity of vines, peaches, and greenhouse 
plants ; in the autumn, as soon as the vines are ripe, 
they should be let out of the house, by sliding down 
the lights, one at a time, in the fore part of a mild 
day, and the vines fastened carefully to the back wall, 
there to remain during the winter, or until the time of 
forcing arrives, when they may be taken in again, ob- 



151 



serving the same caution as before. The usual pro- 
gressive degrees of heat are then to be attended to, 
as in the ordinary mode of peach forcing, vrhich is 
the principal object here to be attended to, and such 
will perfectly suit the vines. By the same progres- 
sive stages of temperature, the ornamental plants will 
flourish and produce early flowers, which may either 
remain in the greenhouse, or be successively removed 
to decorate the drawing-room, &c. About the middle 
of May the plants will be turned out for the summer, 
and the stage may then be appropriated to dwarf vines 
in pots, figs, balsams, and other tender annual plants. 
(Cal. Hort, Mem. iv. 576.) 

Although such may be accomplished, yet, we can- 
not but regard it as a retrograde step in the art of 
forcing. It is seldom that the trees endure long 
under such treatment, for it is obvious that a conti- 
nual compromise must be taking place. 



POT CULTURE. 

Forcing the peach in pots is a most excellent mode, 
not only because it enables a succession to be obtained 
with least trouble and expense, but because it enables 
this fruit to be forced even where there is no regular 
peachery. 

The fundamental rules to be kept in mind during 



152 



this mode of forcing are, 1st, that you must begin 
with maiden plants — that is, trees three years old 
from the time of their being budded, that have not 
borne fruit ; 2ndly, that you use the smallest pots 
you can, every year, consistently with the size of the 
plants ; and 3rdly, that you shift annually, disturbing 
the roots as little as possible, but removing the old 
soil as much as is consistent with this care. 

The following directions for this mode of forcing; 
are furnished by Mr. W. Hutchinson, gardener to E. 
J. Shirley, Esq., at Eatington Park : — 

Procure good maiden plants, as soon after the 
leaves fall in autumn as possible ; pot in sandy loam, 
enriched with one-fourth well-rotted sheep or cow- 
dung. Have three sizes of pots; the smallest 12 
inches wide at top and 1 1 inches deep inside ; the 
second size, 14 inches at top and 13 deep ; the third 
size, 17 inches at top and 15 deep. After the plants 
are potted, plunge them in leaves, or any other litter, 
to save the roots and pots from the frost. If a pit or 
frame can be spared, it will be better to start the 
plants there the first year than to put them into pine- 
house heat at once. Cut down the plants to four or 
five eyes, and they will make as many shoots the first 
year. Place the plants in the pit or frame about the 
1st of January, increasing the heat gradually, as the 
plants grow, to make the change to the pine-house as 
imperceptible as possible. All that will be required 



153 



during the first year is, to keep the plants clean by 
daily syringing, and to water at the root as necessity 
requires, and occasionally with liquid manure. When 
the trees have ripened their wood, let theni be taken out, 
and placed behind a north wall. In September they 
may be shifted into the second-sized pots, picking off 
a Httle mould from the top and sides of the ball of 
earth. This will complete the first year. In Janu- 
ary of the second year, place the plants in the pine- 
house at once. In pruning, cut in the shoots a little, 
according to their strength. If the plants have made 
good wood during the first year, they may be allowed 
to bear a few fruit during the second year. Water 
and syringe as formerly, till the wood is ripe ; then 
take out the plants to their former situation behind 
the wall. By this time, if the trees have been ma- 
naged properly, they will be fine stocky plants. Shift 
again in September ; those that have grown strong, 
into the largest-sized pots ; others, that may not have 
grown very vigorous, may be placed in the same pots 
again, after reducing the ball sufficiently to admit of 
a supply of fresh mould. This will complete the se- 
cond year. Now, as the plants ought to be fit for 
work, put them in on December 1st of the second 
year. Syringe every morning with tepid water ; keep 
the floor of the house damp by watering, and raise 
steam frequently by watering the flues or hot-water 
pipes. This must be particularly attended to. Keep 



154 



the temperature as low during the night, in Decem- 
ber, as you can, consistently with keeping the pines 
in health, about 55 degs. Fahr. ; from 5 to 10 degs. 
higher during the day ; with sun, 10 to 15 degs. 
higher. Little or no air will be required during this 
month, unless the weather be very mild indeed. 
While the plants are in flower, syringing must be 
dispensed with, and great caution used that too much 
fire be not applied. One night's neglect at this stage 
will blast your hopes for one year. Sixty degrees at 
night during this time will be enough ; and 75 degs., 
with sun, will not be too much during the day. As 
the season advances, after the fruit are set, keep about 
65 degs. at night ; sometimes, on mild nights, a little 
higher ; on cold nights, somewhat lower ; but during 
the day, with sun, push them on now from 80 to 85 
degs., till the fruit are stoned, and begin to smell ; 
they will then stand a strong heat, 90 to 95 degs., 
and even to 100 of Fahr. ; but recollect that abun- 
dance of moisture must accompany this high tempe- 
rature. Keep the passages and pipes watered often. 
In watering, give it in small quantities, sufficient to 
keep the trees moderately moist, till after the fruit 
are stoned, when give it very plentifully, keeping the 
roots quite wet till they begin to ripen. Then cover 
the surface of the pots with moss, to save watering, 
giving as little as possible till the fruit are all off, 
(Gard. Mag. vii. 321, N.S.) 



155 



The temperatures employed by Mr. Hutchinson 
are as follow : — For the first it is kept at 55 degrees 
during the day, and afterwards as near 60 as possible, 
and when the sun shines air is sparingly admitted, but 
it would be more freely if it were not for pines being 
cultivated in the same house. During March, after 
the fruit is set, the day temperature is from 80 to 85 
degs. ; but after the stones are formed, from 90 to 
100 degs., but the night temperature never above 60. 
Trees have been thus forced until they were 16 years 
old, and will continue longer probably. (Gard, 
Chron, 1843, 267.) By employing such high tem- 
peratures, Mr. Hutchinson gathered ripe peaches on 
the 7th of April, though forcing only commenced on 
the 25th of November. 

Facts are stubborn things, or we certainly should 
have hesitated before we recommended such very high 
temperatures. That peaches will endure a great 
amount of heat, we are perfectly aware ; but such a 
great amount of night heat is certainly unknown in 
our practice. Mr. Hutchinson has, however, it would 
appear, been successful. W e would advise those be- 
ginning to try their hand at peach-forcing in pots to 
be content with a much more moderate amount — at 
least for a season. We are very partial to high tem- 
peratures during sunshine, provided a due motion or 
circulation of air is kept up, with some little moisture 
of a permanent character in the atmosphere. High 



156 



night heat will, we think, of course accelerate the 
ripening of the fruit, but assuredly it will be at the 
expense of the flavour. It should be borne in mind 
by all parties desirous of forcing good peaches, that 
much of our early forcing practised in these days is 
moulded in regard of temperatures by the great exhi- 
bition days in London. Therefore those who do not 
grow for exhibition purposes, may frequently steer a 
more moderate course. 

Mr. Hutchinson, we see, advises a sandy loam. 
Surely a sound and somewhat tenacious loam will 
prove more durable. We would strongly advise the 
use of chopped turf, about six months old, for this 
purpose, handled by spade, but by no means by the 
riddle. We are somewhat surprised that neither turf 
nor liquid manure are named in Mr. Hutchinson's 
paper ; the importance of these materials is now uni- 
versally recognised both in horticulture and agricul- 
ture. Having tried, and, we think, proved, the utility 
of bone manure, we would recommend a portion to 
be used in the peach soil. What is termed boiled 
bone is the kind we use, ^nd is chiefly composed of 
phosphate of lime. Be that as it may, we have fre- 
quently found strong and healthy roots pierced 
through the lumps. It should be of the character 
termed by the salesman ''half-inch bone." The fine 
should be rejected, for it will only serve to block up 
the drainage, and is, we suspect, too powerful in its 



immediate action for the young fibre. "We would 
advise the strength or tenacity of the soil to be in- 
creased progressively with each shift, beginning with 
a somewhat sandy loam for the maiden plants, and 
using a loam of sounder character, and in rather 
larger masses at each successive shift. The drainage 
should be so complete that no subsequent waterings 
may by any means disarrange it ; more especially if 
liquid manure is systematically used ; which, however 
clarified — which it assuredly ought to be in all cases 
— has a continual tendency to close the pores of the 
soil, and of course to impede drainage, and exclude 
the beneficial agency of the atmosphere. 

We w^ould now add a remark on the very high 
ripening temperatures employed by Mr. Hutchinson, 
and to express a fear, that such will in general be 
accompanied by inferiority of flavour. This is not 
peculiar to the peach alone, but will be found to hold 
good with the melon, the strawberry, and even the 
grape and the pine apple. The elaboration and 
chemical changes necesssary, in order to give high 
flavour in fruits, requires a given amount of time, in 
order to bring into play the whole capabilities of the 
plant. 

The system of fruiting the peach in pots in pine- 
stoves is not to be generally advised ; that it may be 
accomplished, Mr. H. has shewn, and indeed it is no 
novel affair. Some compromise must, however, un- 



158 



avoidably take place, for the pine in its own nature 
requires at least twice the amount of atmospheric 
moisture on the average that is advisable for the peach. 
In these days of cheap glass, it would be much better 
to build very small houses or pits. Such would answer 
either as lean-to's or in the span-roof form, and might, 
for economy's sake, be so compact, that all the opera- 
tions necessary might be performed from the outside 
by means of light sliding sashes ; the building of 
course sunk very low. There would be no necessity 
for a walk inside, unless desired by the proprietor. 
The preservation of walks in the interior of forcing 
structures often leads to much needless expense. 

Throughout the whole course of peach forcing, by 
whatever mode or in whatever structure, much atmos- 
pheric moisture must be secured, that is, providing 
much artificial heat be indulged in. The only excep- 
tions to this are two periods : the one whilst blos- 
soming, the other whilst in the ripe state. For pot 
culture, we apprehend that severe economy will, at 
times, still cause them to be grown in pine-stoves, or 
mixed up with other forcing. When such is the 
xase, it will be expedient, after the fruit is gathered, to 
use sulphur liberally on the the back of the leaf, pro- 
vided the red spider has commenced operations. 



159 



DISEASES. 

Plants, like animals, are liable to disease just in 
proportion as they are made to live in a climate dif- 
fering little or much from that of the country in which 
they are natives. The climate of Persia differs greatly 
from that of Great Britain, and, as a consequence, the 
peach is here subject to peculiar diseases unknown as 
its ravagers in his native habitat. The chief differences 
between the climates of the two countries are the 
greater wetness of that of Great Britain, and the 
greater vicissitudes of temperature during its sum- 
mers. To these differences may be traced the origin 
of all the diseases to which this fruit-tree is liable. 

Gumming is an issue or extravasation of the sap of 
the peach tree, arising usually from its being formed 
more rapidly than it can be conveyed away by the 
sap vessels. When this occurs rupture must take 
place, for the force with which it is propelled during 
circulation, and consequently the force acting to burst 
the vessels during any check, is very much greater 
than could have been expected, before Mr. Hales de- 
monstrated it by experiment. Now, we know that a 
much less pressure than any of those he ascertained 
would be capable of bursting the delicate membranes 
of any of their exterior descending sap vessels, and it 
is in such outer ducts that the injury first occurs. 
When one exterior vessel is ruptured, that next be- 



160 



neath it, having the supporting pressure removed, is 
enabled to follow the same course at the same locality ; 
and in proportion to the length of the time that the 
sap continues in excess, is the depth to which the 
mischief extends, and the quantity of sap extravasated. 
If the extravasation proceeds from this cause, there is 
but one course of treatment to be pursued ; sever one 
of the main roots to afford the tree immediate relief, 
and reduce the staple of the soil by removing some of 
it, and admixing less fertile earthy components, as 
sand or chalk. This must be done gradually, for the 
fibrous roots that are suited for the collection of food 
from a fertile soil are not at once adapted for the in- 
trosusception of that from a less abundant pasturage. 
Care must be taken not to apply the above remedies 
before it is clearly ascertained that the cause is not 
an unnatural contraction of the sap vessels, because, 
in such case, the treatment might be injurious rather 
than beneficial. We have always found it arising 
from an excessive production of sap, if the tree when 
afflicted by extravasation produces at the same time 
super-luxuriant shoots. (Johnson's Principles of 
Gardening 

Professor Lindley, with his usual ability, has traced 
the progress of this disease as follows : — Gum is the 
basis of vegetation, and he would not be very wrong 
who should assert that the whole framework of a 
plant is a skeleton of gum. This substance seems to 



161 



be formed by the decomposition of carbonic acid 
amongst water, with whose elements the young carbon 
combines. The first secretion that we find in a young 
seedling is gum, and out of that gum the organs of 
the tender plant are fashioned by the vital force. 
The first secretion that is formed by a full-grown 
plant, when it is roused from its winter's torpor and 
begins to grow, is gum, which in trees oozes out be- 
tween the wood and bark, as cambium, causing the 
latter to "run," and enabling both those parts to 
increase in thickness. Gum also lubricates the delicate 
organs which are formed in the leaf-bud, and lengthen 
into leaves and branches. But as plants grow old gum 
disappears, the proportions of its element change, and 
it assumes the new forms of starch and wood, or it 
simply loses the water that dissolved it, and becomes a 
hardened coating to the minute cells and tubes of vege- 
table structure. When it is completely changed, or 
hardened, wood is said to be ripe ; on the contrary, when 
it remains in the very state of gum, and still retains its 
water, wood is called unripe. In the former condition 
it offers great resistance to changes of temperature, suf- 
fering but little either from heat or cold, and it gives 
birth to branches firm and healthy like itself, because 
they are fed by a healthy mother. In the latter 
state, (that of unripeness,) it is extremely sensible of 
changes of temperature, its fluid expanding with force 
on either side of 40 degs. of Fahrenheit's scale, and 

M 



162 



it brings forth sickly watery branches, because it 
cannot give them their duly-prepared supply of food. 
The point to he gained, then, is to secure the con- 
version of gum into some more dry and solid form of 
matter. This is the more important in a peach tree, 
because that plant, like all stone-fruit trees, naturally 
produces gum in excess, and it wants the power 
which many plants possess of rapidly converting it 
into something else. How is this to be done ? Gum 
is converted into starch or wood by the loss of a por- 
tion of the water in combination with it. A loss of 
one part of water in eleven produces starch, and of 
three parts in eleven produces wood. A separation of 
the water of combination is produced by heat and 
light, and by no other known agents. In proportion 
as the branches are heated and exposed to bright 
light are starch and wood formed at the expense of 
gum ; we may also conceive that, in a similar propor- 
tion, unchanged gum is dried off by the evaporation 
of its water of solution, and vice versa* Now, one of 
the first means to effect this end is to take care that 
no more wood is produced than can be fully exposed 
to sunlight ; and that all such wood is continually 
nailed close to a wall, whenever it is long enough to 
be so secured ; in order that the reflected heat of the 
wall may be absorbed by the branches. All the sys- 
tems of leaving fore-right shoots, or of putting off 
summer pruning till the winter, and tucking in the 



163 



summer growth, according to the ignorant school of 
Forsyth, are in the most direct opposition to the ripen- 
ing process, or, in other words, to the conversion 
of gum into starch and wood. This explains why 
peach trees grown in the open gardens of a nursery, 
where the temperature is low, are so peculiarly sub- 
ject to gum. But all the exposure, thin training, and 
other expedients that can be thought of, in order to 
place the peach tree in a situation similar to that of 
its own Persian climate, will fail, if the roots are per- 
mitted to suck up moisture too abundantly from the 
soil, or if the air is so damp as to hinder the ready 
passage of water through the leaves. In order, there- 
fore, to secure the ripening of wood, these points also 
are to be sedulously attended to. The border must 
not only be at all times well drained, but in localities 
where the air is inevitably very moist, and where, 
therefore, the leaves are incapable of perspiring copi- 
ously, the border must be maintained so dry that but 
little moisture shall find its w^ay into the system of 
the trees ; for, by so doing, the leaves, w^hich have little 
power of action, in consequence of the dampness of the 
air that surrounds them, will have little occasion to exer- 
cise such power as they possess ; and thus a due balance 
will be maintained between the perspiring powers of the 
leaves and the absorbing powers of the roots. When 
these things are neglected, the consequence is, that 
cold expanding the watery matter of the unripe w^ood 



164 



during winter, will force through the sides of the cells 
in which is lodged the gummy fluid, which, the mo- 
ment this happens, loses its vitality and causes a 
decay of the surrounding parts ; or heat, when the 
sun beats fiercely on the branches, will produce the 
same effect — the inevitable result of which will be 
decay. The proximate cause of " the gum" may 
therefore be either exposure of unripe wood to the 
sun, or the action of frost upon it. Another cause, 
distinct from all these, may be the following : — Sup- 
pose that neither heat nor cold are sufficient to damage 
the unripe wood, the new sap will do it ; for in unripe 
wood the cells and vessels are filled unnaturally with 
crude fluid before the new sap enters them ; and the 
moment that new sap is introduced in addition, they 
become so distended, that a portion of their contents 
must escape. That portion flows into the intercellu- 
lar cavities of the bark, thence finds its way to the 
exterior, and, having lost its vitality, immediately in- 
duces the decay of the surrounding parts. {Gard. 
Chron. 1844, 355.) 

Although thorough drainage is a most effectual 
check upon the occurrence of gumming, by preventing 
the absorption of too much moisture under ordinary 
circumstances, yet, despite the best of drainage, this 
efflux of sap will occur if the soil of the border is 
allowed to become too dry, and then to be exposed to 
a fall of heavy rain. The vessels of the branches, 



165 



contracted by long exposure to drought, are unable to 
give passage to the consequent sudden great accession 
of sap. For such an event there is no remedj^, but 
the preventive is obviously that of mulching and 
watering, in order to keep the trees in a free-growing 
state during the dry weather, so that when rain does 
come a full supply of moisture will be nothing more 
than what the trees have been accustomed to, {Ibid, 
1843, 361.) 

Gumming, however, also is the mere efflux of the 
sap from a wound, the best remedy for which is to 
cut the injured parts out cleanly with a very sharp 
knife, and excluding the entrance of wet by plaster- 
ing it over with white-lead, or with a mixture of 
melted wax and resin. Such wounds frequently arise 
from the decay of abortive buds, both of wood-buds 
and blossom-buds. This abortiveness, observes Mr. 
Pearson, of Kinlet, near Bewdley, establishes itself 
earlier or later in the autumn, or probably from the 
vicissitudes of a severe winter. The abortive wood- 
buds are more numerous in those trees which are 
rather declining in vigour, or in those branches of a 
young tree which has been robbed of its portion of 
nourishment by its more robust neighbours, or, which 
is often the case, branches which have borne too 
much fruit. It matters little, however, in this case^ 
how these abortive buds are established ; the fact is , 
they are established, and there the disease commences 



166 



its silent but certain and destructive operations. 
When the buds are dead, they, like all dead vegetable 
matter, become powerful absorbents of water, whether 
of the finely-divided vapours of the atmosphere, or the 
more condensed form of rain-water — hence, after rain, 
they become gorged with water. So long as these 
dead buds rest on the trees, there is httle or no cica- 
trization between the dead buds and the branches 
which they rest on ; or, at all events, not before they 
have been saturated with moisture, which first satura- 
tion, after death has taken place, enters into the most 
incipient fermentation with the sap of the plant, at 
the connection between the dead bud and the living 
branch. By the alternations of wintry weather, from 
wet to dry, and wet to frost, and frost to hot sunshine, 
as spring approaches, the frost, freezing the water in 
the dead buds, enlarges their capacity for holding 
their destructive element, which assists in carrying on 
the fermentation between the alburnum and the bark. 
In this infant stage of the disease, it is not discernible 
by ordinary observation, as the bark does not change 
its colour for some time after the disease has entered 
the system of the plant ; and, if dry weather follow 
the recent establishment of it, its ravages are arrested 
for a time, but which, nevertheless, progress as the sap 
attenuates, when the disease again, but more plainly, 
manifests itself. 

xlnother cause for gumming is a local contraction 



167 



of the sap vessels, which, preventing the sufficiently 
rapid progress of the sap, causes it to burst them and 
thus to find vent above the contraction. 

Mr. J. Roberts, of Hampsthwaite, near Ripley, re- 
marking upon the occurrence of this in the peach and 
nectarine, observes, that the more free-growing kinds, 
such as the French Mignonne, Royal George and 
Noblesse peaches, Yiolet Hative, and other nectarines, 
worked upon stubborn stocks, are most subject to it, 
and dwarfs more so than standards. In a few years 
there are large excrescences at the point of union of 
the bud with the stock, so that in that time the trees 
have shewn a premature decay. This arises from 
the want of reciprocy betwixt root and branch, and all 
the khid treatment imaginable cannot counteract the 
consequence. The sap in its downward direction 
meets a repulse, is propelled upwards into the chan- 
nels already surcharged, when it procures for itself an 
outlet, and then gum disease, and a premature decay 
of the whole plant, is the consequence. {Gard, 
Chron. 1844, 389.) 

The occurrence of gumming in the native climate 
of the peach is, we are given to understand, a rarity 
as compared with what afflicts it in Britain ; and Mr. 
Errington observes that two great evils in cultivation 
conspire together to produce it, viz., unripeness of 
wood and abrasion or laceration of the bark. To 
these, however, may be added a sort of gangrenous 



168 



tendency, induced by pruning over-luxuriant shoots. 
For the latter we would urge what has before been 
pressed on the reader's attention, viz. to prevent over- 
luxuriance, by keeping the root under control from the 
very first. Secondly, to practise the preventive system 
of pruning, or rather of stopping ; which consists in 
pinching off the terminal points of gross shoots in the 
growing season, when four or five buds in length. And 
thirdly, to make a point of sealing up the ends of the 
pruned shoots, when the trees are in the rest state, 
by rubbing white-lead (which is our practice) or 
other impervious matter on the newly-made incisure. 

The influence of wet, together with atmospheric 
action, is well known, by the practice of generations, 
to be very inimical to the permanency of this tree. 
Indeed, we believe that from this, and unripeness in 
the wood, arise the great majority of evils that beset 
this highly-esteemed fruit. One passing remark we 
would here make, and that is, that where the gum 
unhappily breaks out — be it at what period it may — 
that it is the best policy to scrape it clean away, with- 
out abrasion of the bark, and to put a patch of the 
white-lead on the blemish whilst in a dry state. This 
we have practised for years, and the practice may be 
relied on. 

Shrivelling of the Points of the Shoots, — This is 
almost or altogether caused by unripeness in the 
young wood, and generally brought about by too lux- 



169 



uriant growth, indaced by a too liberal use of ma- 
nures, together with too deep a soil. In our more 
northern counties this is a somewhat common occur- 
rence ; and young trees purchased from the nurseries 
of a gross character, and planted in deep and rich 
soils, will sometimes make shoots three or four feet in 
length, which looks most flattering until the autumn 
arrives, when, if it prove ungenial, the points of such 
shoots wither and decay, and such is not unfrequently 
termed stricken" or blighted. 

Now, were the gross young shoots of such trees to 
have their terminal points pinched off when about 
nine inches in length, their growth would be much 
moderated, and the side branches emanating there- 
from would be produced in time to become permanent 
shoots of the future tree. Instead of this, we gene- 
rally see them permitted to remain their whole length, 
and only shortened back at the winter's pruning ; 
when the side shoots, before alluded to, have yet to 
be produced ; in fact, a whole season may be said to 
be lost, and the whole system of the tree rendered 
more luxuriant than ever. The best mode of proce- 
dure in such cases is to take the tree carefully up and 
replant it with much care, taking care not to bruise 
the roots, or, if any become injured, to cut them clean 
away with a sharp knife, always cutting just beyond 
a tuft of fibres. The latter point we urge because we 
have found roots pruned back to a bare part always 



170 



more inclined to produce suckers, which are a source 
of some annoyance. 

Blistering of Leaves, — Peach trees, especially if 
growing on ill-drained soils, are excessively liable to 
have blistered leaves, attended by a contraction of the 
midrib, and, in some instances, it extends to an unna- 
tural thickening of the upper parenchymatous plate 
of the leaves. The French gardeners term this 
disease la cloque. We are inclined to the opinion 
that this disease arises from an excess of moisture 
being imbibed by the roots. An effort is made by 
the tree to enlarge its leaves for the elaboration of 
this excessive and diluted supply of sap, and in the 
effort the parenchyma of the leaves extends more ra- 
pidly than their ribs. Contortion is thus unavoidably 
induced. In a similar mode the pulp or parenchyma 
of the plum and cherry cause their cuticles to burst 
in wet weather. Acari frequently make their appear- 
ance upon such leaves, but these are attendants upon 
vegetable disease, not the cause. Thorough under- 
draining will probably prevent a recurrence of the 
evil ; and in confirmation that the disease arises from 
excessive moisture, we may observe that the diseased 
leaves drop off, and none others occur so soon as the 
dry hot weather of summer is fairly established. Al- 
though, frequently, only some trees out of several 
against the same wall are thus diseased, this proves 
no more than that the unaffected trees are either 



171 



planted shallower, have roots that do not absorb 
moisture so fast as the others, or have a power in 
their leaves to transpire it more freely. 

Professor Lindley, remarking upon this disease, 
observes, that when a plant remains in a healthy state, 
but its leaves are excessively distended with watery 
matter, the first thing that happens is an increase in 
size, or number, or perhaps in both, of the green blad- 
ders that lie between the veins of the leaves, and 
which, growing faster than the veins that bound them, 
form, as Mr. Johnson has stated, excrescences and ex- 
pansions, presenting the appearance of blisters. This 
happens continually, in vineries, to vines growing with 
great vigour, whose leaves will then present innumer- 
able green bags, or bladders, springing up from their 
surface and deforming them. 

The disease of the vine-leaf in a vinery is of the 
same nature as the bhster of the peach-leaf in front 
of a south wall. There is no essential difference be- 
tween them ; it is only one of degree, that of the 
peach being the more severe. In both instances the 
cause is the same ; namely, the accumulation in the 
leaves of watery matter derived from the soil. If this 
be so, it can hardly be said tbat cold is the primary 
cause of the mischief; for no cold is experienced in 
those vineries where the malady is the most conspicu- 
ous. We do not, however, entirely deny the evil influ- 
ence of low temperature. It is very possible that it 



does injure the delicate tissue of young leaves, and 
render it incapable of performing its allotted office. 
\Ye believe, moreover, that the evil attendant upon 
an accumulation of watery matter in the foliage is ag- 
gravated by cold, which, no doubt, interferes wdth the 
great function of perspiration ; for, in a warm climate, 
the peach would probably throw off its superfluous 
watery particles as fast as the leaves received them. 
What we contend for is, that cold must be regarded 
at most as a mere secondary cause ; and that no such 
mischief as we see produced would arise if the wet of 
the soil did not overcharge and distend the leaves. 
It is, therefore, to the border that we should look ; 
and our great object should be to guard the soil of 
newly-sprouting peach-trees from being suddenly filled 
with water, even although it is quickly drained off 
again. In the absence of this, we shall no more, by 
shades or coverings, prevent the leaves from blister- 
ing than we do in the case of vines by glazed roofs ; 
and we doubt much whether, if the border were kept 
permanently clear of sudden and excessive accessions 
of water, any considerable amount of blister would 
appear, even although the leaves were left unguarded 
to the cold radiation, dangerous as that action is to 
plants so tender as the peach-tree. {Gard, Chron, 
1845, 431.) 

Mildew, whether on the sterns of the wheat, or on 
the leaves of the chrysanthemum, pea, rose, or peach. 



173 



appears in the form of minute fungi, the roots of 
which penetrate the pores of the epidermis, rob the 
plant of its juices, and interrupt its respiration. There 
seems to us every reason to beheve that the fungus is 
communicated to the plants from the soil. Every 
specimen of these fungi emits annually myriads of 
minute seeds, and these are wafted over the soil by 
the winds, vegetating and reproducing seed, if they 
have happened to be deposited in a favourable place, 
or remaining until the following spring without germi- 
nating. These fungi have the power of spreading 
also by stooling or throwing out offsets. They are 
never absent from a soil, and at some periods of its 
growth are annually to be found upon the plants 
liable to their inroads. They are more observed in 
cold, damp, muggy seasons, because such seasons are 
peculiarly favourable to the growth of all fungi. The 
best of all cures is a weak solution of common salt and 
water sprinkled over the foliage of the plant affected, 
by the aid of a painter's brush, or impelled by a 
syringe. Dissolve three ounces of the salt in each 
gallon of water, and repeat the application on two or 
three successive days, applying it during the evening. 
Nitre has been employed with similar success, using 
one ounce to each gallon. (Johnson's Diet, of Mod, 
Gardening.) 

Dusting the leaves with flowers of sulphur is also a 
successful remedy. 



174 



The white parasitical fungi, that are either the 
cause or injurious consequence of the peach-leaf mil- 
dew, are Oidium erysiphoides, Sporotrichum macro- 
sphorum, Torula hotryoides, and Erysiphe pannosa. 
We have little doubt that these fungi never attack 
plants that are in good health, for we entertain the 
opinion that it is only the sap of diseased plants — sap 
m a state of decomposition — that is suited to be the 
food of the fungi. Prevention, therefore, is prefera- 
ble to curative applications, and we have no doubt 
that if the peach tree is kept in due vigour by having 
the soil well drained, and prevented from excesses of 
either moisture or of dryness — and if its leaves are 
similarl}^ protected from being exposed to sudden at- 
mospheric changes — they will never be visited by 
mildew. 

We are justified in this conclusion, because with 
this disease our peach trees, in the whole course of 
our practice, (which has extended over thirty years,) 
have seldom or never been troubled. Mildew of 
all kinds generally proceeds from an impeded root 
action, and we have generally found that stagnation 
suddenly caused, whether by excessive heat or drought, 
is liable to produce it, more especially if succeeded 
by much solar light. We have little doubt that in 
such cases the elaboration (by overtaking or being in 
advance of the absorbing power) produces more highly 
concentrated juices, which are adapted as pabulum 



for this obscure class of parasites. The best preven- 
tive is a good top-dressing of rotten manure in the 
early part of J une, and as soon as drought sets in a 
thorough soaking of water. If caused by bad and 
deep borders, the remedy must be sought in thorough 
drainage, or an entire renovation of the soil. 

There is no doubt that some peaches are more 
liable to be visited by this disease than are others, 
and those are the kinds which are most luxuriant 
growers. It so happens that most of these have no 
glands at the bases of their leaves. This was long 
since noticed, and again lately commented upon by 
Mr. Blake, secretary to the Croydon Gardeners' So- 
ciety. He observed that the kinds which have no 
glands are all subject to mildew ; such as Double 
Montague, Ford's Seedling, Red Magdalen, Noblesse, 
Vanguard, Barrington, Grimwood's Boyal George, 
Belle Bausse, and Early Galand. These kinds are 
all liable to be affected with the mildew, whether 
planted indoors or out, in any part of England : but 
then it is soon stopped ; a little slacked lime and sul- 
phur vivum settles it. There are a number of 
peaches, and very fine ones too, that possess glands ; 
some with one, two, or three pairs of ovate, and some 
with the same number of reniform glands, all of 
which kinds resist the mildew. Mr. Blake trained 
the shoots of those with glands over those infected, 
and they would not receive the infection. {Gard, 



176 



Journ, 1846.) A fact strongly supporting the opinion 
we have expressed, that the mildew fungi only attacks 
those trees the sap of which is already in a state of 
incipient disease. 

Again, Mr. J. Kirk, gardener at Smeaton, says 
that, if any of the trees are in a stunted or sickly 
state, he takes away all the old mould from the roots, 
as carefully as possible, and puts in its place fresh 
rotten turf from an old pasture, without any dung. 
Mr. Kirk has done this in many instances ; and all 
the times that he has practised it, the trees never 
failed, not only completely to recover their health, but 
to produce a crop of fine-swelled fruit. {Caled Sort* 
Mem, i 363.) 

Blotches in the shoots is a gangrene, beginning in 
the form of specks, but gradually forming a decayed 
part, that, like the canker in the apple tree, destroys 
all the shoot beyond the infected part. It usually 
attacks ill-ripened shoots, and the only remedy we 
know of is to lop off those infected an inch or two 
below the blotch ; but, to prevent the occurrence of 
this disorder, use every means to ripen the wood 
thoroughly. 

Blotches on the fruit are an induration or harden- 
ing of the skin, which seems to arise from its being 
exposed to sudden transitions of temperature. We 
never observed these blotches on forced peaches. 

Splitting of the fruit arises from the sudden 



177 



application of moisture after mueli drought. This 
spHtting occurs before they begin to ripen, and, to 
prevent it, it is necessary that the border should not 
be allowed at any time to become too dry ; and further, 
that too much foliage should not be taken off at once ; 
neither should insects be allowed to injure that which 
is left. If the trees are thus kept in health in dry 
weather, the fruit will not be affected when wet sets 
in. In watering, cold spring water must not be used. 
{Gard. Chron. 1844, 200.) 

Splitting of the sto7ies often occurs in late peaches 
when excessive rain penetrates to the roots of the 
trees, and there becomes stagnant, after a previously 
dry season : the stones of the fruit split, and the latter 
drops in consequence. This will not be the case if 
the borders have a sufficient supply of moisture 
throughout the summer, and no superabundance when 
the fruit is ripening off. {Ibid,) 

Wounds. — After the winter-pruning, stop every 
wound made by the knife, and every place whence 
proceeds gummy exudations, with a coat of thick 
white paint ; this painting is repeated, and perhaps 
a third time, on all the larger wounds. This is found 
of eminent use, for it is a tolerably well-known fact, 
that the entrance of air and moisture into such wounds 
is in many cases the cause of premature decay. The 
wounds being dressed in this manner, immediately 
stove the house with sulphur, blended with sawdust, 

N 



178 



and burnt in shallow pans, and afterwards dress the 
tree over two or three times with soft-soap, sulphur, 
and tobacco-water, brushing it carefully into every 
bud and crevice with a painting-brush. This mixture 
is not made so strong as recommended by some of 
our gardening authors, as Mr. Errington depends 
much on the careful brushing and flooding every part 
of the tree. {Hort, Soc, Trans. 360.) 



INSECTS. 

Aphis Persicce. — This species of aphis is the ear- 
liest to appear in the spring, and, like others of the 
same genus, is the produce of eggs deposited by its 
parent in the previous autumn. It usually appears 
in damp chilly weather, when the air being full of 
moisture or haze, and associated by the commonalty 
with their appearance, the weather is said to be 
blighting. The fact that one aphis produces at the 
rate of twenty-five young ones per day for several 
months ; that each young one begins to multiply as 
soon as it is born ; that one aphis kept purposely in 
confinement saw nine generations in three months ; 
that one aphis during its life may be the progenitor 
of no less than 5,904,900,000 descendants; and that 
the autumn-deposited brood are almost all simultane- 
ously hatched in the spring ; are facts quite sufiicient 



179 



to account for the myriads of these pests which then 
occasionally appear, without having recourse to the 
ignorant suggestion that they are engendered by cer- 
tain winds, or states of the atmosphere. 

To prevent their appearance, take sulphur vivum, 
sifted lime, and Scotch snuff, equal quantities of each ; 
lamp-black, half the quantity ; mix them to the thick- 
ness of paint, with stale brine and soapsuds. With 
this mixture paint the wall and trees, and over all the 
buds, very early in the spring, just as they begin to 
shew colour. We doubt not that this is a serviceable 
wash ; and if the lamp-black causes an unsightly ap- 
pearance, clay or some other substance must be sub- 
stituted, to dilute and increase the bulk of the mix- 
ture, which otherwise may be too strong for the trees. 
{Gard, Chron. 1845, 154.) 

If the aphides do make their appearance in the 
spring, syringe the trees on which they are with to- 
bacco-water. Do it two or three times, after intervals 
of a day or two, and whilst the sun is shining upon 
the leaves. 

Broivn Scale appears to be the same as preys upon 
the grape-vine, {Coccus vitis), and like that tree the 
peach is liable to its attacks both under glass and in 
the open air. It is, says Mr. Curtis, a longish brown 
insect, which in old age assumes a blackish brown 
colour, and becomes hemispherical and wrinkled. 
The females are shield-like, being convex above and 
N 2 



180 



flat or concave below ; they are furnished with six 
small legSj which, when the insect is old, become part 
of the substance of the body. On the under side of 
the insect is a sucker, with which it pierces the cuti- 
cle of the plants, and extracts their juices. Soon 
after impregnation the female dies, and her body be- 
comes a protection for the eggs, which are covered 
with long white wool, and sometimes completely en- 
velope the shoots of the vines, or of plants, growing 
underneath them. The males are furnished with 
four wings, and are apterous. Their powers of pro- 
pagation are immense ; and, where 
they once become very numerous, 
they are exceedingly difficult to era- 
dicate. This species belongs to the 
true genus Coccus, characterised by 
the female having a scale inseparable 
from her body. When young, both 
sexes are alike, but the male larvae 
produce two-winged insects, with two 
tail threads. The females have no 
wings, and their dead bodies, beneath 
which the young are sheltered, appear 
as in the annexed woodcut. {John- 
son and Erring ton on the Grape 
Vine, ii. 136.) 

This is decidedly one of the greatest pests in the 
peach-house, but, if the trees are painted over every 




181 



year at forcing-time with the mixture, according to 
the recipe of Mr. Kyle, they will be kept down ; the 
addition of a little glue or soft-soap to the mixture 
will be found beneficial ; keep a sharp look-out that 
none are left ; the injurious effects of these pests on 
the young wood is astonishing. 

Mr. J. Kyle says that the following is a cure for 
mildew as well as the scale. Get some tenacious clay, 
and dilute it with water till it comes to the consistency 
of paint. To every gallon of the clay-paint add half 
a pound of sulphur ; mix them well, and paint the 
trees all over. It will be better to apply two dress- 
ings, and the second must not be put on till the first 
is thoroughly dry. The best season is when the buds 
begin to swell. To prevent rain washing it off from 
trees in the open air, it is advantageous to nail mats 
over the trees, taking them off when the weather is 
dry. It will require at least a fortnight to kill the 
scale ; when the clay drops off, it will bring all the 
scale with it. No mildew will make its appearance 
till J uly, and but little then compared with what there 
would have been without the application. If mildew 
does make its appearance, syringe the trees with 
water, and apply flour of sulphur through the rose of 
a large watering-pot. By dredging it on while the 
trees are wet, and leaving it on for a week, you will 
find that the mildew will be conquered. {Gard. Chron, 
1841, 69.) 



182 



Acarus (Erythrceus) tellarius, — The red spider. — 
This pest of the gardener is very rarely found on the 
peach-tree, and never will occur if the air of the house 
is kept duly impregnated with watery vapour. Sul- 
phur fumigations and a more free supply of atmos- 
pheric moisture will speedily remove and continue to 
exclude this insect. 

The red spider cannot thrive — scarcely exist — 
where a sufficiency of water is regularly appHed. As, 
however, syringing cannot be persisted in at all times, 
something else is requisite at those periods, when the 
syringe is laid by. Sulphur, then, is the best thing 
at present known for this purpose; but as many 
persons are deterred from the use of it, through a 
fear of its pernicious effects, we will here detail our 
mode of using it, by which we have been kept (we 
might almost say entirely) free of this pest for the 
last twelve years. We apply it about three or four 
times in the course of the year, to each house ; the 
houses are on the average about 30 feet long, by some 
1 6 feet wide, and we use about six ounces to each 
house each time, applied in the form of thick paint. 
The houses are heated by hot water, and the sulphur- 
paint is applied to the under or return pipe alone. 
The best way is to beat a lump of soft-soap, as large 
as a walnut, up in warm water ; and to add some clay- 
water, made by working a lump of clay in warm water 
until the water becomes a thin paint ; then to blend 



183 



this with the soap water ; and finally to mix the sul- 
phur also. The soap and the clay form a body, and 
prevent the sulphur washing or rubbing off. {John- 
son and Barnes on the Pine Apple, ii. 128.) 

Otiorhyncus tenehricosus, — The red-legged garden 
weevil. — The maggots of this are found round the 
base of the stems of wall-fruit, sometimes in very 
great quantities, a few inches below the surface, where 
they undergo their transformations. The beetles, 
which are old offenders, come out only at night to 
feed upon the buds of wall-fruit, doing great mischief 
to apricots, peaches, nectarines, plums, &c. They 
first destroy the fruit, and subsequently attack the 
bark and leaves, so as not unfrequently to endanger 
the life of the trees. They commence their depreda- 
tions in April by eating the unexpanded blossom-buds, 
clearing out the centre, and leaving only the external 
bractea, and occasionally fragments of the immature 
leaves. They will thus proceed along a branch until 
all the buds are destroyed, and afterwards demolish 
the young eyes which ought to produce wood-shoots 
until nothing is left but the bare branches. The 



184 



beetles bury themselves by day in the earth, close to 
the foundation of the wall to which the trees are 
trained, likewise round the stems of the trees, and 
most probably in chinks of the bricks, and other dark 
hiding-places. ^^Tien recently hatched this insect is 
clothed with a delicate yellow pubescence, forming little 
irregular spots upon the elytra ; but they soon wear off 
and disappear, when it becomes of a shining black, 
inclining to a pitch colour. The larree of these 
otiorhynci being as destructive as the perfect beetles, 
the main object ought to be to destroy the former, if 
possible, in the autumn, which probably would be 
most readily effected by stirring the earth all along 
the base of the wall and round the stems of the fruit- 
trees, and then sprinkling salt pretty thickly over the 
broken surface ; or salt and water, or, perhaps, liquid 
manure, might be equally beneficial — if hot, the 
better ; for it seems evident, from the peculiar spots 
in which they generate, or rather undergo their trans- 
formations, that situations sheltered in a great mea- 
sure from the wet are most congenial to their habits. 
The beetles can only be arrested by hand-picking, 
with a candle and lantern, and afterwards pouring 
boiling water upon them, as their shells resist mode- 
rate heat. {Gard. Chron, 1842, 316.) 

Oiiorhy7iciis {Ctirculio) oblongus. — The Oblong 
Weevil. — This is of a reddish brown colour. It ap- 



185 



pears in May, and feeds on the young leaves of the 
peach, apricot, plum, pear and apple. 

Otiorhyncus (Curculio) sulcatus, feeds upon both 
the leaves and fruit of the peach. Mr. Curtis de- 
scribes it as a dull black weevil, with a stout probos- 
cis, at the extremity of which is the mouth ; the 
thorax is granulated, and the elytra are rough, with 
several elevated lines and minute ochre-coloured dots 
placed somewhat transversely ; it has no wings. The 
period for the appearance of these weevils depends 
upon temperature, for May is mentioned by some, 
and June by others, as the months when they are 
mischievous in gardens, and in hothouses much ear- 
lier. Mr. E. Edwards says that he has seen them in 
an early vinery at Studley Castle about the end of 
January, when they make great havoc amongst the 
young shoots and foliage ; and from that time until 
the end of April they feed upon the buds and leaves, 
always high up, and never seen in the day. The eggs 
are deposited a little beneath the surface of the earth, 
and produce white maggots, and these live at the 
roots of the tree, rendering the plants weak and 
sickly ; some say about June the maggots change to 
pupa, whilst others state that they live through the 
winter, and undergo their metamorphoses in the 
spring ; however this may be, they remain in the 
chrysalis state only 14 days. The maggots also do 
great mischief to succulent and other plants in pots. 



186 



as well as in the border, such as Sedums, Saxifragas, 
the Trollius, Auriculas, and Primroses, eating round 
the tops of the roots and detaching them from the 
the crown. 



1 




1. The Weevil. 2,3. Maggots, 4. The Pupa. The straight lines show 
the natural length of the Weevil and Pupa. 

Curculio picipes is a most destructive insect in the 
peachery as well as in the garden. This beetle is very- 
similar in figure to C. sulcatus, but smaller, and 
forms, with about twenty other indigenous species, a 
genus called Otiorhynchus ; they are also nearly alike 
in sculpture, but vary in tint. C picipes being of a 
clay colour, the wing-cases more or less clouded with 
darker-coloured spots, and altogether it so much re- 
sembles in tone the clods and bark under and be- 
tween which this insect secretes itself by day, that it 
is with difficulty detected. In the night these weevils 
sally forth to feed upon wall-fruit trees and the vines 
in hothouses, either attacking the stems of the new 
wood in April, which soon becomes black, or feeding 



187 



near the tips of the shoots. Every crevice in old 
garden-walls often swarm with these weevils. No- 



thing would prove a greater check to their increase 
than stopping all crevices, or holes in the walls, with 
mortar, plaster-of-Paris, or Roman cement ; and the 
interior of hot-houses should be annually washed 
with lime ; the old bark of the vines under which 
they lurk should be stripped off early in the spring, 
and the roots examined in October, where they exhibit 
any unhealthy symptoms from the attacks of the 
maggots of C. sulcatus as soon as the beetles appear ; 
sieves should be held at night under the branches 
and leaves, when, by shaking them, the beetles 
will readily fall into the sieves, but as they drop 
down when approached, this operation must be pro- 
ceeded with gently and quietly ; multitudes may be 
thus collected, both in and out of doors, and if 
the person who carries the light has a pail or jug of 
water, the sieves may be emptied into them as occa- 
sion may require ; but when the beetles are eventually 
destroyed, boiling, not warm water, must be used, as 
the hardness of their horny covering will resist a con- 
siderable degree of heat. When the larvse are ascer- 
tained to reside at the base of a wall, salt might be 




188 



sprinkled, which will kill them as readily as it will 
the maggots in nuts ; strong infusions of tobacco- 
water, aloes, and quassia, are also recommended. 
Where the blood of animals can be obtained, it might 
be beneficially applied, as it would coagulate over the 
tender larvae and pupse, and set them fast in the 
earth. {GarcL Chron, 1841, 292.) 

In Xorth America the peach constitutes an impor- 
tant part of the general produce, serving both as food 
for swine, and famishing by distillation a useful 
spirit. The ravages committed upon them there by 
insects are so serious, that premiums have been 
offered for extirpating them. A species of weevil, 
perhaps a BijncJiites, enters the fruit when unripe, 
probably laying its egg within the stone, and so de- 
stroys them. And two kinds of Zygcena^ by attack- 
ing the roots, do a still greater injury to the trees. 
A Coccusy as it should seem from the description, 
imported about thirty years ago from the Mauritius, 
or else with the Constantia vine from the Cape of 
Good Hope, has destroyed nearly nine-tenths of the 
peach trees in the island of St. Helena, where for- 
merly they were so abundant that, as in North Ame- 
rica, the swine were fed with them. Various means 
have been employed to destroy this plague, but 
hitherto without success. {Kirby and Spence, i. 
202.) 

JVas^ps ars great ravagers of the fruit of the peach 



189 

if from any cause an opening is made througli its 
outer skin. The best prevention is to suspend bottles 
containing a little beer and sugar near the trees, to 
lure them from the fruit. 



WINCHESTER : 
H. WOOLDRIDGE, PEINTEB, HIGH-STREET. 



THE 

GARDENER'S MONTHLY VOLUME. 

EDITED BY GEORGE W. JOHNSON, ESQ. 
Author of " The Dictionary of Modern Gardening The 
Gardener^s Almanack,'' Sfc. 
AIDED BY SOME OF THE BEST PRACTICAL GARDENERS. 



No work on Gardening exists containing within its pages all the informa- 
tion relative to each object of the art that the modem progress of knowledge 
has elicited. This is no fault of the authors, who have gathered together 
masses of horticultural knowledge. 

To remedy this admitted deficiency, the series of "The Gardener's 
Monthly Volume" has been undertaken. Each volume will be devoted 
to one or more plants cultivated by the gardener ; and will combine all that 
is useful to be known of each connected with its history, chemical and bo- 
tanical qualities, modes of culture, uses, diseases, parasitical marauders, 
and any other relative information ; richly illustrated wherever illustrations 
will be of utility. 

Each volume being of itself a book, purchasers may select only such as 
may suit their wants ; whilst those who take the entire series will possess 
the most ample store of horticultural knowledge that has ever appeared in 
a collected form. 

A volume, bound in cloth, price half-a-ci'own, will appear on the 1st of 
every month ; and, at the same time, to suit the convenience of purchasers, 
in half-volumes, with stitched covers, price one shilling each. 



The volumes already published are — 

.Tan. 1.— the POTATO; ITS CULTURE, USES, AND HISTORY. 

By the Editor. 

Feb. 1.— the CUCUMBER AND THE GOOSEBERRY; THEIR 
CULTURE, USES, AND HISTORY. By the Editor. 

March l.— THE VINE (Out-door Culture, &c.) By the Editoe, 
and R. Errington, Gardener to Sir P. Egerton, Bart. 

April 1. — THE VINE (In-door Culture, &c.) By the same. 

May 1.— THE AURICULA; Its Culture, &c. By the Editor, and 
J. Slater, Florist, Manchester. THE ASPARAGUS ; Its Cul- 
ture, &c. By the Editor and R. Errington, Gardener to Sir P. 
Egerton, Bart. Each complete in Half a Volume. 

June 1.— THE PINE APPLE. Vol. I. By the Editor, and James 
Barnes, Gardener to Lady RoUe, Bicton, Devonshire. 

July 1.— THE PINE APPLE. Vol. II. By the same. 

August l.— THE STRAWBERRY. By the Editor and Robert 
Reid, Gardener to Mrs. Clarke, Noblethorpe Hall, nearBamsley. 

Sept. 1.— THE DAHLIA. By the Editor and J. Turner, Florist, 
Chalvey, near Windsor. 



LONDON: SIMP KIN, MARSHALL, and CO,, Paternos- 
ter Row, WINCHESTER : H WOOLDRIDGE, 



